Council to fight service station appeal

Gosford Council has once again refused to grant conditional consent for a service station at Empire Bay

The decision comes despite advice that they have little chance of winning an upcoming appeal against the refusal in the Land and Environment Court.

Council officers had prepared an array of strict conditions that would be applied to the development consent, however the councillors voted for refusal to grant the Development Application (DA).

Crs Robert Bell, Lynne Bockholt, Malcolm Brooks, Chris Holstein, Tony Sansom, and Debra Wales voted to refuse the DA.

Crs Daniel Cook, Craig Doyle and Geoff Preece supported approval.

In 1997, the site was zoned for use as a service station in exchange for the protection of 14 hectares of environmentally sensitive land which also belonged to the site owner.

Mayor Cr Robert Bell listed reasons which had been raised for refusal of the application.

He said: "Setback from the road is not compliant.

"It is just under 10 metres closer than permitted.

"And there will be no sewer connection for at least four years.

"The size and bulk is out of character with the area.

"There is potential danger to the oyster industry and endangered ecological communities.

"It is not in the public interest.

"There is the danger of spills and an inability to manage spills in a non-urban environment," Cr Bell said.

Cr Lynne Bockholt had other concerns, saying: "The thing that disturbs me is the potential for subdivision.

"This has been before us for months because councillors are hesitant about it.

"This is a big service station, not what the council envisaged (six years ago).

"The developer says he would not agree to having no possibility of subdivision, so we'll be in court anyway."

According to Cr Wales, an assessor from the Land and Environment Court will be coming to inspect and may say that it is indeed not an appropriate location for a service station.

Cr Chris Holstein said that he would oppose the development, but raised concern about the consequences.

"If the matter is lost in court, I worry about the conditions which may be imposed, rather than the conditions council has laid out in the business paper," Cr Holstein said.

Cr Sansom said: "In light of some of the discussion here tonight, I'll move for refusal.

"It'll be fought out in the Land and Environment Court, irrespective of what we decide here tonight."

An attempt to convince the majority of councillors to change their minds came as a long address from Cr Doyle.

He said: "Here we are told we have no chance.

"I'm going to vote against refusal because it is the common sense thing to do.

"I wasn't on council in 1997, but I think I would have supported protection of that land as well.

"The developers have come to council to ask that they can do the very thing we said they are allowed to do.

"This may be our only chance to apply stringent conditions.

"I'm happy to defend the appeal if we have a chance, but voting for refusal would be a defeat of common sense.

"They're entitled to build," Cr Doyle said.

Cr Preece concurred with Cr Doyle.

He said: "This highlights the importance of re-zoning.

"You should be studying and assessing the site before it is zoned as anything at all.

"We shouldn't have rezoned it as a service station.

"I'm going to go with Cr Doyle, not because I want the thing.

"I just don't want to waste $50,000 to $100,000."

The case will be heard in the Land and Environment Court from August 5.

Jonathan Reichard, July 23