Michael features in this week’s Hills Shire Times again. This time he is drawing attention to the drumming workshops in the UK – typical of the disruptive, high-noise activities favoured by Go Ape.
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
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!
To the anonymous resident from George Muir Close who left the envelope in my letterbox:-
Thank you for your note, it was equally uplifting, unexpected and appreciated. Your gift has gone to the intended recipients who also pass on their thanks.
Michael
Thank you very much to those who have already volunteered to drop flyers in letterboxes. Someone will be in touch with you soon, as we hope to have a big push before the Conciliation Conference.
However, we are in need of people who are willing to collect more signatures on the petition. If you feel you have a reasonable grasp of what the proposal is about and can spare a couple of hours, please let Michael know via our contact page.
If you are not confident about collecting petition signatures, more volunteers for the letterbox drops are always needed! We are anxious to cover as wide an area as possible by the end of next weekend.
If you can’t do the walking but are a signwriter, or an environmental lawyer, or something similarly useful, please do let us know!
Thank you to all who attended the 2nd Bidjigal Reserve Action Group (BRAG) Meeting. Around 60 people attended including 3 Hills Shire Councillors, Clr Thomas, Clr Jefferies and Clr Bentham. At one stage I saw several people peering in the side window of the loungeroom – no idea what or even how they heard anything but their attendance was appreciated.
There was a great number of excellent questions, both of the group itself in general and the councillors in particular – it was also interesting to hear their different opinions however I think we can all take heart from their positive words about the approach we are taking.
It’s important to remember that this is the start of the battle – we need to win the war – become active particpants in the decisions others are making on our behalf. Write and phone Councillors with your opinion – even 6 unhappy smiley faces has an impact – 
. We will also be adding contact details for the Bidjigal Trust – one of the important things that came out of the meeting was the fact that NO commercial agreement has been reached between the Trust and the applicant so we can affect the decision.
Attendance in numbers at the Conciliation meeting is essential – see the website for more information.
We will be in touch with all of the volunteers we can reach out to – if we don’t please chase us, unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately given the GFC) we also have employers who insist on a small amount of productivity during the day…..
Thanks again for your support.
Michael Cameron
Thanks to Di for putting this together and to all those who have already contributed in all aspects of what we’ve achieved so far.
The purpose of what we’re doing is to try to bring some rational debate to the proposed DA affecting Bidjigal Reserve. It is our intention to prevent this DA from being approved for a variety of reasons. The website contains facts and some opinion – it’s up to you to establish what your thoughts on the matter are – we trust that the information we provide helps you reach the obvious conclusion 
.
We welcome, indeed, encourage your comments.
Michael Cameron.
http://hills-shire-times.whereilive.com.au/news/story/bush-plan-talks/
(page 3 in the print version).