Bungendore Residents Group Community action for Bungendore Village

Following is a link to the documents and ruling on the Trucking Yard Lane development which we contested and were successful.  We were represented by the Environmental Defenders Office.

Alix Burnett

You’ll be aware that the move to recind the motion relating to the tip closure and the Bungendore Transfer Station was successful but I believe the conflicts of iInterest issues behind it all, deserve continued examination. Here’s the full text of my presentation to council.

“In a recent letter to the Mirror I asked if I was wrong in my interpretation of the Bungendore Tip debate in saying the councillors had “no concern that the decision would greatly advantage one individual and greatly disadvantage another; no concern that they were overthrowing a key plank of their waste management strategy; no concern that the alternate site proposed would have a greater social and environmental impact; no concern that any change would involve considerable extra cost; no concern that the investigation will take up a huge amount of staff time; and no concern that some councillors had failed to declare a conflict of interest”.

I am pleased that the three councillors who have sponsored this rescission motion, at least, have understood that there is a great deal at stake here and I’m hoping that a majority of the councillors will agree to the rescission.

The rescission will not, however, address what to me are the two most worrying aspects of this affair. The first is the matter of meeting procedure; that a motion so clearly unrelated to the issue before the Council was able to be introduced and voted on without any regard for the interests of the Council, the ratepayers, or other landholders.

The second is that some councillors, with a very clear conflict of interest, did not absent themselves but remained in the room, participated in the debate and voted. All of the Councillors would have known that Elmslea Developments had lodged objections to the tip development and many would have known that Elmslea Developments were seeking a rezoning of land adjacent to the tip. Yet no councillor, nor the General Manager, felt a need to ask if any councillor had an interest to declare. I hope that the Council will take the two unaddressed issues on board and that in future the General Manager, the Mayor and the Councillors will be more vigilant about the ‘safety’ of the motions put to the Council and ensure that conflicts of interest are declared.

I would remind the General Manager and the Councillors that where they are aware of matters such as conflicts of interest, be they their own or other councillors’, they have an obligation under the Local Government Act to inform the Council.”

John Taylor, President BRG

Following Peter’s alert, Warner Hieatt added

“Once you have seen it you will never forget it. Lizzy’s brothers have it up on their property east of Condobolin. I would be prepared to spend some time this Sunday weeding it out with a team. If it gets a hold on it will spread to the area we run the dogs and that will be the end of pleasurable exercise for them.
Regards
Warner”  

and Pete and Di offered some photographs and the comment…

“If we don’t get the cat’s head thorn NOW Frogs Hollow (and eventually ALL of Bungendore) will be contaminated by this weed and as Warner wrote “will be the end of pleasurable excerise” in open spaces (dog walking and bicycle riding).  Warner’s generous offer to help dig the weed out is probably the best solution and the only way now to stop it’s spread. Burrs are already on the ground and therefore too late to spray.  We would also help dig out, we have already managed to dig some on our side of the Molnglo Street but anyone digging will need heavy gloves for the job and also a way of safely disposing of the weeds as it would be no use sending them to the tip as that may spread them further. Attached are pics from Monday morning.”  

Weed spreading, click for larger

Closeup of burr

BEWARE! Cat’s Head weed on Frog’s Hollow

I just found a major infestation of the Mediterranean weed ‘Tribulus terrestris’, Preferred Common Name: caltrop, Other Common Names: cat’s head, devil’s thorn, puncture vine on Frog’s Hollow where the recent “rehabilitation” of the verges next to the new k&g appears to have introduced this nasty weed. We’ve never seen it in our area before but saw it out west years ago where an old farmer told us how bad it is. The www.weeds.org.au site describes it as “a troublesome weed of wasteland, pastoral land, cropping, vineyards and recreation areas. Sharp spines on dry fruit hamper stock handling, are a nuisance in recreation areas and fruit may contaminate drying grapes. Photosensitisation, staggers and nitrate poisoning are also caused by stock grazing Caltrop. Young sheep are especially sensitive.” I don’t know if it was the new top dressing or the sprayed cover that brought it here. The sharp spiny burrs are particularly painful to bare feet (human and animal) and are a major nuisance to bike and even car tyres. The plants are covered with masses of the spiky cat’s head burrs right now which can be easily spread by attaching to feet, shoes or tyres.

The council environmental officer said that as it is not a declared noxious weed (although it is in the NT) he’d pass our concerns onto the appropriate works officer. Control measures are urgent to stop this damaging weed from spreading throughout Bungendore and surrounds.

Peter Gill

I’ll draw from the council business papers for the background to this.

‘The Sydney-Canberra Corridor Regional Strategy states that the NSW Department of Planning will only support greenfield developments in Bungendore that are contained in a  Land Use Strategy and Structure Plan. Such a plan would need to be endorsed by the Director Of Planning first.

To expedite this major project and in recognition of the development pressures being experienced in Bungendore, Council appointed a consultant to prepare a land use
strategy and structure plan for Bungendore. This work will be incorporated into
Palerang’s 25 year Strategic Planning Paper. The funding for this consultant work was provided by owners of land adjacent to Bungendore who were seeking further
development of their land. Council supervised the project and was the client for the
brief. On 30 April 2008 a meeting of Stakeholders engaged the consultant PA Walsh Consulting to complete the strategy.

A five person Steering Committee team comprised of Mr Des Page representing the
underwriters, John Wright (Manager Strategic Planning), Louise Menday (Director
DPES), David McLaren (Bungendore Chamber of Commerce) and Martin Brown (NSW Department of Planning) was formed to oversee the Project. A completed draft of the study was presented to a Council Workshop on 17 November 2008. The study was also discussed with the major Stakeholders on 18 December 2008.’

‘Apart from the usual costs associated with project managing such proposals, all other costs will be funded by the interested land owners (at their agreement). The total
external cost of the work was $100,000 which was paid for by the following local land holders who had agreed to fund the project to the following extent D.Osbourne 10%, Kenoss Pty Ltd 20%, Elmslea Land Development 60%, P Darmody 10%, Warren King $1000.’

There was application at the council meeting to delay the release of the draft because the stakeholders (it was said at the meeting), were all dissapointed that the report was not to be released with the Town Centre plan which was to be part of the $100,000 project. And that they expected a 25 year window rather than the five immediate years the plan addresses. (There is a large amount of forward planning in it, designed to feed into the LEP.) The Land Use Strategy costing $65,000, was just part of this planning processes.

The Bungendore Residents Association have made a copy of the draft available in PDF format here. There will be one on the council website as well I’m sure. There are a  number of large maps which we haven’t put online but smaller versions are included in this main document. Please read it.

As the council Business Paper says, it..

Engages and involves the Community in the project of preparing new planning
instruments for the Palerang Local Government Area (LGA) through a process of
significant community consultation involving public exhibition and invitation of written submissions. This is consistent with objectives of the LEP related funding agreement with Department of Planning under the Planning Reform Funding Program

So we have 28 days to make a BRG response to this plan. It has a number of assumptions that relate to infill development, and with the previous post setting an ‘Area suitable for Medium Density Development’ that is most of the old part of Bungendore.

Your comments on this would be appreciated as part of this response.

Fred Harden

I have a print copy of the Draft Development Control Plan Yarrowlumla LEP 2002, 2(V) Village Zone.  Now, I’m sure that’s a typo on the cover because it’s actually Palerang Development Control Plan YLEP 2002, 2(V) Village Zone. (Although YLEP is Yarrowlumla LEP).

It is a simple document laying out requirements for development in Captains Flat and Bungendore with a few major bits of forward thinking that will make it clearer to potential developers and residents what they need to do when making application to council.

The forward thinking bits? Definition of an “Area suitable for Medium Density Development’ in Bungendore and introduction of some new Lanes that will make that development possible. And some clarification of minimum block sizes and strong requirements for solar alignment and back yard ammenity space.  (There’s clarification of Flood Zones but I haven’t got my head around that yet.)

The paper in the Council Business for the Council meeting on Thursday 5 Feb. explains the thinking behind it all, read it here (PDF) 

Heres’ a map of the proposed zone, all with 400m walking distance to the business centre.

New development, all within a short walk

Those dark blue double lines are the proposed lanes. Between Molongolo and Ellendon, and Ellendon and Butmaroo in the area bounded by Turallo Terrace and Gibraltar, a shorter ‘dead end’ lane off Butmaroo and  between Rutledge and Malbon, parralel with Ellendon.

The area marked out contains a lot of the ‘old Bungendore’ and the seperate Heritage buildings register sets requirements to development near those. And there’s some stricter environmental aspects mentions as well.
The Draft will be released to the Council meeting today and I’m sure we’ll see it available online for all of you soon.
Then the discussion can begin!
Fred Harden

We’ve made up a easy online fill in form for Bunedore Mirror Editor John Mitchell’s form to determine how we, the public, understand the conflicts of interest that may prevent a councillor from voting on a particular item of Council business.

He wrote “A councillor’s challenge to a member of the public gallery that he name the councillors he alleged had a conflict of interest, and the gallery member’s acceptance of that challenge, has again highlighted the difference between some councillors and members of the public in their understanding of what constitutes a conflict of interest. ”

The ‘member of the public gallery’ was our BRG President John Taylor and John has encouraged all Palerang residents to contribute to the survey. It only takes a few minutes (but you will need to think about). The survey is here >

Fred

While we often criticise the council for what seems like secretive inactivity, the Thursday 6 November Council meeting sees a case where they’re being rabidly proactive. It’s hard to fathom why the tape recording of Council meetings (Item A.14 on the Agenda) that will allegedly give us, the ratepayers of Palerang, more transparency about the discussions at council meetings, have a suggested public exhibition for 28 days and then a consultation period of 42 days. Yet the plans for a major pedestrian and bike path through Frogs Hollow plus underpasses and refuge islands have only a 3 day exhibition in a online PDF document and have to be approved immediately by Council after languishing in an Engineer’s ‘to do’ tray for months.

And just as hasty, the Engineers want the decision about what material to use (concrete or asphalt),  to then be the automatic default for all the future footpaths built in the village outside the CBD!

This follows the equally hasty mish mash of kerbing and guttering that is already happening in Molonglo St. (against resident’s, and the Heritage Committee  and BRG’s wishes), adjacent to Frog’s Hollow, that could be the template for kerbing and guttering the WHOLE of Old Bungendore. This is estimated at costing $2,000 to $4,000 per frontage, personally payable by you, the resident of each block, as well as by ALL residents through their rates.

It’s no wonder why our rates are so high, because of unneeded, expensive, out of rural village character, not heritage-sensitive kerbing and guttering. Large sections of the village have swales that allow rain to soak gently into our soil instead of draining it away as waste. We must face the fact that the town’s water restrictions, like droughts and global warming are here to stay and continued infill development and new estates will only add to our water needs and the waste runoff.

This is all happening with no prior consultation of the Council’s Heritage Advisor. With no consultation with the Chamber of Commerce. With no input from the community, the Bungendore Residents Group and dismissing the wishes of the immediate residents.

The Councillors need to know that we don’t think this is acceptable and that they need to direct the Council staff to conduct these developments with proper, timely consultation.

If you can attend the meeting at the Bungendore Council Chambers at 12.00 noon on Thursday 6 November please come and lend your support. If you can’t make it, please consider joining the Bungendore Residents Group so we can have a group voice at times like this.

If you wish to discuss this or any other issue, please feel free to ring BRG Secretary Fred Harden 6238 0020 or email him.

This post is the opinons of members Fred Harden, Alix Burnet and Di and Peter Gill

This entry has been updated with a comment from Alix Burnett, please see below.

The BRG invites all residents and members to attend this council meeting on Thursday 6 at 12.00 noon. This is the first of the new daytime meetings so it’s important to show Councillors that we’ll go out of our way to attend, support and keep an eye on how they deliver their electoral promises.  Council Agenda Download the PDF here.  

Items to be discussed

The two Ellendon Street Subdivisons ( see previous post below)

Molongolo Street Shared Path

Three days out from the Council Meeting we have at last a detailed plan (it was a sketch last we heard of it) of what the Council has planned for Frogs Hollow paths ( mention of kerbing seems to be absent from this plan, it’s hoped those discussions will continue as planned)

See full plan as a PDF

Download the Full PDF here of the path plan.

Director of Infrastructure Planning, Bill Ellinson says in Item 9A.3

“With reference to the attached layout plans it is planned to construct the shared pedestrian/cycle
path within the next month. This path work will complete the combined Turallo Creek
Bridge/Molonglo reconstruction project. The path will facilitate safe and functional pedestrian
and bicycle movements in this area and will link the ‘Elmslea’ developments to the shopping and
community facilities in the old part of the village. It will be part of a system of pathways that
hopefully in time will provide a circuit for recreational cyclists and walkers around Bungendore.
There are three issues however that need to be determined by Council before the works
proceed.
· Of what material should the pathway be constructed?
· Should the opportunity be taken to incorporate a pedestrian refuge facility and link paths
to provide a safer pedestrian crossing adjacent to the Turallo Creek bridge and Turallo
Terrace?
· Voting of funds is required ”

The BRG will make a response at the Council meeting, and we welcome your feedback before then.
I’m sure all of the future bike riders in Bungendore will welcome this ‘circuit for recreational cyclists’ and the linking of the underpass of the bridge to the path through the Common will help them avoid the heavy truck traffic (and be safer for school kids). Pedestrians may also feel this is a safe route.

But on the plan, (and there’s a separate drawing of it)  a Pedestrian ‘island’ included. Now this may just be a clever plan to slow down and limit the number of gravel trucks that take this section at speed (although that’s not listed as a reason). That section of path is proposed to end at the first driveway in Turallo Terrace (?). At first glance this has to be questioned as to its placement directly in front of one of our nicest heritage cottages, and certainly had not been requested (that we are aware of) until it appears as a plan today.

You must wonder why this now has to be rushed through this month and be concerned with a sneaky note that wants any discussion on the surface material of the path be binding for all other Council paths in the old village.  Hello? What about asking the advice of the Council’s Heritage Committee?  And obviously the Council don’t want any discussion with the Heritage Advisor and are pushing this through while he is away on holidays.

I’m sure it would suit the Council Engineers to get this done while the bridge work is being completed but someone has to say, STOP!. If you haven’t asked the community first and collected all the advice from your own committees, it would be appalling to push this through at Thursday’s council meeting.

Fred Harden

Added Tuesday 4 November by Alix Burnett

We are also of the opinion that any works on public recreation land in the historic precinct need to be considered in accordance with Council’s own recommendation in Agenda item 9B.13, that Council adopt the July 2008 draft Bungendore Heritage Discussion Paper (BHDP) that states that “for the proposed Bungendore Conservation Area generally, the streetscapes shall be managed in a manner that compliments the town’s historic origins, ambience and character.”  Council staff recommend that the BHDP be placed on public display for community comment and it therefore follows that any works in the historic precinct and on public recreation land be allowed time for public comment and consideration.

It is the BRG’s position that there is no demonstrated need for such a path on Frogs Hollow and that any pedestrian or cycle traffic that should utilise the Turallo Creek Bridge be directed under the bridge (as proposed by council) to link up with the purpose built dedicated pedestrian/cycle path at Butmaroo Street and that it should be constructed in bitumen in keeping with the path it will be linking with.  This will keep pedestrian traffic away from a road that has considerable heavy traffic and negate the need for the additional expense of a path on Frogs Hollow or of the need for modern steel and concrete pedestrian refuge to be built in the middle of Molonglo Street and in the near vicinity of historic properties that date around 1880.