AT THE time it was seen as a massive triumph for towns west of the river – Hawkesbury Mayor Bart Bassett’s proclamation in a mayoral minute that there would be no further land rezonings there until current traffic problems were solved.
The October 2009 mayoral minute said: “That as a matter of policy Council indicate that it will not consider nor support any further applications to rezone land for residential purposes in the area west of the Hawkesbury River until such time as the existing infrastructure issues, particularly as related to traffic, have been addressed to Council’s satisfaction”.
But at last week’s Hawkesbury Council meeting the crusading mayoral minute was overturned, reverting to normal planning rules, to the anger of the west-of-the river residents at the meeting.
Former North Richmond and District Community Action Association member Dave Perry gave a fiery speech at the meeting, saying “it was now clear the mayoral minute was a stunt and a smokescreen” and saying that Mayor Bart Bassett’s “block voters” would now “vote as the puppet master dictates”, while resident Mary Buckett called the mayoral minute “little more than a political tool prior to the state election”.
Cr Bassett told the meeting that the council’s Residential Land Strategy still wasn’t finished when he put up the mayoral minute, but now that the strategy was adopted, it should take precedence.
He said “if I was going to be political I’d say no development west of the river”.
“The mayoral minute was done as a stopgap measure while the Residential Land Strategy went on,” Cr Bassett said.
“It went on for three years. Can we please understand the difference between DAs and rezoning?
“I haven’t been part of rezoning land west of the river at all.
“You’re putting a lot of emphasis on a mayoral minute.
“Council officers can now look at an application and make a decision.
“But it still has to go through a lot more stages [before any development is approved].”
One of the issues addressed by several speakers was that of what constituted sufficient infrastructure to solve the problem.
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