31 July 2024

 

SPOKESPERSON for the NPA, Pam McCann, said if the Minister approved the Central Coast Council’s recommendation it would destroy the unique visual landscape, character and lifestyle of the Central Coast, eliminate extensive areas of threatened species habitat, and put Aboriginal cultural heritage at risk.

 

“Ten years ago, the NSW Government promised a new Environmental Land Zone to protect the Central Coast’s unique, irreplaceable and beautiful Coastal Open Space System (COSS) – a system of scenic bushland reserves owned and managed by the local council since the 1970s. “The former Coalition Government broke that promise and now a Labor NSW Government is poised to approve a planning proposal from a council under administration that will wreck wildlife corridors and devastate the future of COSS,” Ms McCann.

 

CEO of Great Eastern Ranges, Gary Howling, said, “We are standing with an alliance of 19 Central Coast and state community and environmental groups to put a stop to the loss of what is unique about the Central Coast region – its green corridors of protected bushland that create a striking backdrop and provide diverse habitats for a host of animal species, including yellow-bellied gliders, powerful owls and red-crowned toadlet. These areas have been protected since the 1970’s for a reason.”

 

“We believe the Central Coast’s unique Coastal Open Space System (COSS) and the surrounding privately-owned bushland intended to be added to COSS is the exemplar of connectivity in urban areas for species like gliding possums who are more at risk from habitat fragmentation.”

 

Bev Debrincat, Chair of Greater Sydney Landcare added: “It’s an example that could be applied to other local government areas. Rather than turn this habitat over to development, Minister Scully needs to understand its value to nature and the community and refuse the proposal.”

 

Central Coast community opposition to the proposal is so deep that the 19-group alliance, headed up by the Community Environment Network (CEN) paid for a full-page ad in the local paper to send an ‘Open Letter’ to Minister Scully.

 

Spokesperson for the Better Planning Network, Maire Sheehan, said the planning proposal recommended by the Council did not represent the “like for like” rezoning the local council promised.

 

“We are talking about privately-owned land mainly located on ridgelines and escarpments that doesn’t need to be freed up for housing. The Central Coast already has enough residential land to meet its population and housing requirements,” Sheehan said.

 

TEC spokesperson, Saul Deane, said the most disturbing element of the proposed rezoning was that it ignored advice from the Biodiversity Conservation and Science Directorate (BCS) within the NSW Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water (DCCEEW).

 

“The DCCEEW concluded that this planning proposal would have a negative impact on biodiversity in this region and we believe Mr Scully has an obligation to follow the expert advice of his own government.

 

“The BCS said the conservation land, that council wants to downgrade to land use zones offering less protection and more development, should have the highest level of protection available outside a national park – the C2 Conservation Zone. How can the Minister ignore expert advice from the agency responsible for protecting biodiversity across NSW?”

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