Council land sale reminiscent of Enclosure Laws

Gosford Council has been mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald at least on two occasions in recent months.

Firstly, our councillors apparently awarded themselves the highest salary increase which was permissible under the Legislation and secondly, of councils between here and Newcastle Gosford was the greediest in its grab for public lands.

The latter matter has at least incited enough interest for over 200 people to attend a meeting last Tuesday at the Anglican Church in Gosford.

It was pleasing to see a few councillors in attendance and very exciting and moving to hear people speak about their local parks with such sincerity.

People do value their local parks and open spaces for all sorts of reasons: recreational; educational; and social.

I was shocked to hear that councillors actually vote at council meetings on matters which they do not understand.

Being a councillor entails more than just turning up for a weekly meeting: it demands a great deal of time for studying and enquiring.

I would have thought it the general manager's job to ensure that all councillors had a handle on matters up for discussion, he himself must be conversant with every detail of these affairs.

Perhaps these people are unaware of the enclosure laws in Britain over centuries, which often were accompanied by force, resistance and even bloodshed; it was these Enclosure Laws which resulted in poachers who tried to feed themselves with wild meat, eventually being transported to Van Diemen's Land.

Now we have our Local Authority trying to take possession of our parks in order to sell them off to developers, as usual they do this over the Xmas period hoping that the public will be too busy to even notice.

Money seems to be our sole raison d'etre these days.

Gosford Council seems unaware that our Federal Environment Minister Mr Hunt wants to increase tree cover in order to lower the heat of our built environments.

In a time of increasing global warming (2015 was the hottest year on record) we need to aim for cooler, greener environments: it will improve our health and quality of life.

Mr Baird was obviously unaware of this also, since he arranged for the felling of 100-year-old native fig trees in the eastern suburbs, this was done at night.

Do we really live in a democracy?

With increased urbanization and more hard surfaces, open land is essential to replenish the water table and to avoid flooding.

In addition, it has been found that green, quiet spaces with shady trees etc are essential for our peace of mind and are particularly important for our mental health; it will be too expensive to buy land for parks in the future, which will be essential for our growing population.

Apart from our human needs for these trees and parks we must consider our dwindling native wild life which needs corridors and native vegetation for its very existence.

When will Gosford Council and indeed all authorities realize and accept that our society: our Governments and Councils; our economies, everything, is a part of the environment and not the other way around?

Without a healthy planet we are lost.

For a start we all need to look carefully at what is happening to our local parks and open spaces and then write to our councillors with our concerns, land which was bequeathed to the public is worth much more now than when originally given.

Compensation is required before they take our land.

Councillors must not just ignore public petitions, they were elected by the people to serve all of the people not just those with business interests.

We the people must be consulted before our lands are taken by Council and sold off to developers but we must let them know.

If they get away with this what else might they try to get away with?

Email, 23 Jan 2016

Margaret Lund, Umina