Category: Submissions to Council et al

URGENT: Submission No.2 – Low Rise Housing and Targeted Assessment Pathways – Discussion Paper

URGENT SUBMISSION DEADLINE ALSO 5pm 24th JUNE.

Summary:

The State is proposing another, whole new development pathway, called Targeted Assessments. This would be for virtually all other residential developments that still doesn’t fit the Complying Development criteria.

The State’s cookie cutter building codes would again replace Tweeds building codes for these Targeted Assessments, and Tweed’s other planning and environmental controls would be weakened so much as to be virtually ineffective except in the most extreme cases.

Tweed has the highest number of threatened species in Australia, is a fragile, steep, wet, active, erosion caldera, and has an urban population within the midst of this stunning ‘National Iconic Landscape’. We have an obligation to protect this region in Australia’s public interest. read more

Tweed Council conditions for approval of new buildings will no longer apply! CEC Position Statement:

NSW State government are taking authority away from local councils to set the conditions for new building approval, State approval conditions will apply.

The State approval conditions are unknown at this time.

Note also that Public Notice and Right to Comment requirements on local building proposals are separately being removed.

The current Council set conditions for building approval reflect not only local environmental concerns but also the will of the local population.

Locally set environmental conditions for building approvals on rural land have been fought for and have been decided in favour of by the majority votes of democratically elected Tweed Shire Councillors.

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The Caldera Environment Centre position on this issue is: read more

URGENT Your Right to be Consulted under Threat

RED ALERT!!!

Very important – submissions needed please before 5pm 3rd June.

Proposed NSW Community Participation Plan.

NSW Labor and the Liberals have teamed up again this time to attack your right to community consultation on local development applications.

Thrilled by their latest success in December that will entirely strip your local Councillors of any powers to determine development applications, they are now trying to cut the community out too.

Under their new proposed Community Participation Plan a development application won’t be publicly advertised for comment if it apparently meets all the planning controls, whether it’s the house next door or a high rise.
The problem is that planning controls can be open to interpretation and arguable, eg bulk and scale, visual impact, privacy, environmental impact or even hazard risk impacts. That’s why we have consultation. read more

The Draft Tweed Development Control Plan – Have Your Say

The Tweed Development Control Plan (DCP) is the Plan by which Council Controls Building and Development Works.

Section B2 of the plan, ‘Preservation of (Urban) Trees and Vegetation’, applies restrictions on the clearing of vegetation.

The CEC support that the draft includes a new protection level for urban local natives at 3 m or higher, previously 5 m, and exotics protected at 40 cm stem diameter, previously 80 cm.

These new reduced limitations are reflected in Table B2.1, urban vegetation which cannot be cleared without Council approval.

Link to Tweed Shire Council’s website to Have Your Say: www.yoursay

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Submission In Objection. The Caldera Environment Centre OBJECT in the strongest possible terms to Redbank power station being permitted to burn vegetation from land clearing and from native forest ecologies:

1. We object to the proposal on ecological grounds.

Ecological systems are collapsing around the planet. We are living in the age of The Ecological Crisis, the collapse of the ecology, the collapse of the systems of interrelated and interdependent lifeforms on this planet. In that context we must rescue and protect ecologies, in this case forest ecologies.

Native vegetation ‘biofuel’ is literally the native forest ecologies, destroyed and pelletised to use as fuel for furnaces. Native Forest ‘biomass’ for furnace fuel for electricity destroys ecologies and IS Ecologically Unsustainable.

To clear land of native ecologies in this era is not a correct action and a Redbank approval will itself burn 850,000 tonnes of native vegetation each year, though worse yet it will also be a precedent for other power stations to do likewise, leading to even greater destruction of native ecologies. read more

Caravan Park at Pottsville refused by NSW.gov, as per Community and TS Council Recommendation.

Tweed Link #1400 4 June 2025:

“The Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) recently announced their decision to refuse the application (DA 25/0011) at Pottsville. The Development Application for 1183 Cudgera Creek Road, Cudgera Creek included the building of a caravan park containing 267 long term sites and 12 short term sites, clubhouse, outbuildings and associated roads.

The NRPP was the deciding body for the application as it was valued at more than $30 million dollars, a higher amount than can be approved by Tweed Shire Council.

Ultimately their determination – which was unanimous – was based on the idea that a key part of the infrastructure (the effluent dispersal area) required for the caravan park was located on land that was not zoned for such a use. However, they also considered a wide range of concerns outlined by the Tweed Shire Council in their submission to the Panel. read more

The Mount Nullum Development Proposal and the Genesis of the Caldera Environment Centre (CEC) 1987-1990

This document discusses the development proposals in Tweed Shire during the late 1980s, focusing on the controversial Mt. Nullum project and the impact of the ICAC inquiry on local politics and environmental activism.

Development Proposals in Tweed Shire

During the late 1980s, Tweed Shire faced numerous development proposals, including the controversial Ocean Blue project and Doug Moran’s Mt Nullum resort. These proposals sparked significant community opposition due to concerns over environmental destruction and lifestyle changes.

An estimated $2000 million in development proposals were planned for Tweed Shire.

The Ocean Blue proposal for Fingal led to an ICAC inquiry in 1989, exposing corruption among local officials. read more

Dear Tweed Shire Councillor, et al.

We reproduce below a recent CEC correspondence to the Tweed Shire Councillors regarding an upcoming agenda item to do with in our opinion not only issues of disposal, but also with our ingestion of micro and nano plastic molecules emitting from plastic in the environment.

Dear Councillor <name>.

Wednesday’s public access Council Meeting has an item on the agenda to do with plastic in the environment, namely the plastic lawn of a leisure facility and the Council’s Strategic Plan for Holiday Parks.

We would like to draw your attention to our webpage about the agenda item, and to some of the other posts to do with plastic in the environment.

As well as the more obvious issue of disposal, We Are All Ingesting Plastic. read more