Sustainability policy has its limits

Gosford Council placed on public exhibition the sustainability event management policy in May 2011.

Submissions were received but the policy was adopted as exhibited.

What was the purpose of exhibiting the document?

Twelve months later, the Council staff reviewed and amended the policy and presented it to the councillors for a decision.

According to the report, this revised, improved policy exhibits the staff's superior expertise and initiative.

This report is constructed to please the councillors and directors and omits community comment.

Will self-regulation be successful?

The autonomous Council has set the standard for best practise sustainable event management and will have sole responsibility of ensuring the standard is maintained in the future.

Self-regulation will be tested.

The policy still applies to small Council controlled events; but it will not apply to the state surfing championships to be held at Umina and Ocean Beaches, which the council is heavily subsidising with hundreds of thousands of dollars and in-kind support.

Sustainability has its limitations apparently: ""sustainable events" are only those "organised by Gosford City Council with one hundred or more participants".

Letter, 27 Jul 2012

Norman Harris, Umina