1st October, 2005

Whinging developers jeopardise Region’s future

The regional development clique has been labelled “spoiled” and “predatory” by local environmentalists this week following a strategic leak of selected details of the pending Lower Hunter Regional Strategy to the Newcastle Herald.

Hunter Community Environment Centre campaigner, Georgina Woods, questioned the motives of the developers that had run to the media last weekend, revealing details of the pending draft: “A very small group of large-scale property developers want to spoil this region for their own profit. In recent years, hundreds of hectares of bushland zoned for rural use have been back-zoned for residential and industrial development. This higgledy-piggledy system has benefited a small group of a dozen or so robber-baron landholders but has occurred at the expense of our natural environment and our region’s character”

“Environmentalists have discussed the draft with the Department of Planning. There are contentious issues yet to be resolved, especially the Department’s unnecessary insistence on destroying thousands of hectares of bush for sprawl, but we welcome the government’s attempt to rein-in land speculation.”

A coalition of environment groups, including the HCEC, has prepared a detailed set of proposals for the Strategy that will be launched at a benefit evening in Newcastle on the 14th October. The proposals include market-driven incentives for private land biodiversity protection and demonstrate that the region can accommodate projected growth without losing any more bushland.

“We are facing a lot of challenges as a region. The community needs positive input, in the public interest. The actions of the fringe development lobby throughout this process – throwing their considerable resources into getting what they want, and whipping up public anxiety when they fear the end of their reign – have shown them up as nothing more than spoiled and self-interested.”

For further comment, contact Georgina Woods 0432 588 060