Did sign have permission?

I have submitted another formal complaint to Gosford Council general manager Mr Paul Anderson regarding the non-complying use of our public land by a franchisee of LJ Hooker and some Gosford Council councillors who were campaigning for re-election.

There is much confusion in Council about what I have formerly complained about to Council management and supported with some photographic evidence since early September.

Three complaints have identified to Council the illegal and non-complying use of several councillors and also new candidates; the most egregious conflict with the Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Act 1912.

The Council Code of Conduct and the Gosford Planning Scheme Ordnance was the LJ Hooker For Sale sign outside a property on Terrigal Dr, Terrigal, for some months which was festooned with Craig Doyle campaign flutes.

As LJ Hooker seems to want to get it on with me, I am asking Gosford Council again, whether LJ Hooker had approval for the For Sale sign to be placed on the road reserve in the place identified to them in the several photos I supplied to Gosford Council and published in several pages of the Peninsula News and other local papers.

I note that Council's public officer Mr Nic Pasternatsky insists on replying to all my emails to Council, Council officers and councillors by snail mail, which needs to stop because it is wasting rate payers' money and inconveniencing me and others involved in pursuing honest open government.

I have asked, and I ask again, did LJ Hooker have approval to put the enormous sign on the road reserve outside the development site at Terrigal Dr, Terrigal, as identified in several photos supplied to Council and other complaints sent to the attention of Council?

In a so-slow-to-arrive-snail-mail-letter on November 30, I was advised that Council's rangers do not give permission to any persons that wish to display advertising on Council land that is offensive.

Either the real estate sign was approved by Council, and Council will copy me the proof of insurance and rental paid to Council in accordance with Council policy, or it was not permitted, and it was as perceived "friends of Council" just doing their thing.

Either way, I doubt Gosford Council have any record of giving written permission to Craig Doyle to have added his campaign material to the sign, because that may have been illegal.

I understand LJ Hooker do not own the sign which makes what Cr Doyle told me about having approval from the owner of the property hard to reconcile with the facts.

I feel I am being discriminated when I compare my dismissive treatment by my Council to that of other ratepayers.

By the way, there were several councillors and other campaigners identified in several full page ads in our local papers.

Just how does Council expect us to believe the illegal and non-complying use of public property was not able to be diligently policed?

The mayor's head shot was on railway fences in two prominent places easily removed by any ranger doing their jobs diligently.

Email, 10 Dec 2012

Edward James, Umina