Council has heard from the Go Ape developer; he has advised Council that he will be writing to them in the near future.
So this is news of the no-news variety 
We did, however, want to let you know that we continue to keep in touch with Council and that the wheels continue to grind slowly.
Council wrote to the Go Ape applicant in September, expressing Council’s (and
our) concerns about the proposal. The applicant replied on 7 October, asking for
30 days to respond to those concerns.
So, it’s still a waiting game. Given the 30 day response time, it will probably
be the first week or two in November before there is any more news. I’ll harrass
Adam Dean at Council around that time 
Di
The latest people to have to fight Go Ape are The Friends of Itchen Valley Country Park, which is near Southampton in the UK.
This YouTube video was posted by Go Ape themselves! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to hear that resonating across Bidjigal Reserve?
I wonder how many of Go Ape’s planning applications in the UK mentioned drumming workshops for 50 people. Or did their DA’s also say, “No power is used, so no noise is created”?
We recently received a couple of emails of support from people involved in Pollok Park‘s successful fight against a Go Ape development.
From Lisa:
Hey Campaigners!
I just wanted to send you a message of solidarity from Glasgow, Scotland, where I’m sure you will know, we recently successfully managed to prevent a Go-Ape development in Pollok Park. Best of luck with fighting the project and the reams of red tape I am sure your elected members and officials will wrap themselves in.
It can be done and you can win!
And from Scott:
Good luck guys and gals.
We had to fight for two years to save our local Pollok Park in Glasgow.
Hope you can do the same.
Page 3 of the Hills Shire Times this week carries a story about the Lands Department urging the Bidjigal Reserve Trust Board to reconsider its decision not to proceed with the Go Ape proposal. Lands (or The Land and Property Management Authority, as it now is) appears to be making this recommendation based purely on the Go Ape DA, without any consideration of the proposal’s many, many shortcomings, or of the objections received by Council.
We are still waiting on the next stage of the DA process, as outlined in Michael’s What’s Next? post. We should have news from Council by early next week – we hope!
Di
On 6 October 2009, Council sent out notes taken at the Go Ape Conciliation Conference held on 7 September. We’re providing them here for anyone who wasn’t at the conference or didn’t get a copy.
The accompanying letter from Cameron McKenzie (Group Manager – Environment and Planning for The Hills Shire Council) invites you to contact Adam Dean of Council’s Environment and Planning Services on 9843 0352 should you have any enquiries.
Feel free to leave comments here too!
Di
It seems Go Ape at Lever Park in the UK are ignoring their stated opening times and number of participants.
An excellent question and one that deserved an answer before now – apologies for not doing this earlier.
Without rewriting the Hills Shire Council webpage on the DA process http://www.thehills.nsw.gov.au/IgnitionSuite/uploads/docs/DA_communications_protocol_2008.pdf the next stage of the process will be that the notes from the “conciliation meeting” will be sent to all those parties who registered on the night – providing of course your handwriting is legible – we’ll post them here as soon as we get them and they’re expected about now. It’s important to remember these are “notes” only, not minutes and have no legal or binding status. Council have been provided copies of all of our speeches plus other submissions on the night plus have all of our collective submissions on file. Parallel to this the Developer will be advised of the issues raised on the night.
Council basically has 3 levels fpr determination of DA’s;
Obviously this DA will go to the DAU – the DAU may choose one/any/many of 4 basic options;
The minutes and applicable decisions of the DAU (Tuesday morning closed meeting) are published and Councillors have a limited timeframe to decide whether to refer the matter to a council meeting or not depending on the DAU decision. We need to be ready to lobby councillors QUICKLY should the decision be against us, ie 2, 3 or 4 as above. It’s highly likely however, given the “interest” generated that this will go straight to council. It’s imperative that we have a good showing at any meeting, normal BRAG rules apply – no uncontrolled emotion, swearing, yelling or handguns.
Once we know what the determination of DA is the next challenge for us will be the lobbying of Council [and other parties] to get the Reserve rezoned or protected under the current zoning – we will all need to meet to discuss a strategy further down the track.
Please keep visiting the website for updates and if you haven’t already done so, register your details via the contacts page. Please ask any questions you may have and any suggestions, news, views etc always welcome.
Michael
The proposed Go Ape development in Ted Horwood and Bidjigal Reserves is front-page in this week’s Hills Shire Times, with more on Page 4. Only two of the three stories have text links at the moment:
Action group goes ape and calls for action
There is a third story, “Applicant defends report”, about the noise report. You can find this story on page 4 of the electronic version.
In case anyone is interested, I have also uploaded the letter to the editor which I sent to the Hills Shire Times, refuting some of the claims made in the article. I also sent an annotated version, which goes into rather more detail and is complete with illustrations!