Kate da Costa - Group C The Greens

Running with: Ruth Herman and Wendy Rix

Q. What do you consider to be the most important issue facing the Ward you would be elected to represent?

A. Managing such a huge area with very different needs, from Mangrove Mountain and the Hawkesbury villages to the increasingly dense residential area of the Peninsula, and the CBD of Gosford, without letting Gosford City eclipse the rest of the ward.

Q. What do you consider to be the most important issue facing the Central Coast Local Government Area?

A. Achieving truly sustainable development in the face of climate change and growing population pressures.

Q. How would you, if elected to Council, set about addressing that issue for (a) your Ward, (b) the region?

A. The solution to balancing the needs of the residents, businesses and nature across the Coast is no different to the solution for Gosford West Ward and cannot be done Ward by Ward, in isolation.

We need to acknowledge the true cost and value of clean water, clean air and a healthy natural environment, and ensure that our planning controls in the new integrated LEP reflect those costs and values.

We will ensure that environmental impacts, particularly on water sources, are genuinely measured and transparently discussed.

We need to recognise that healthy communities need infrastructure in place, before housing and industrial estates are rolled out.

This includes planning for public transport, commuter parking, cycle ways and pedestrians access.

We need to make sure that ordinary residents, and the natural environment, have as much say in planning the future of our region as business and developers, through mechanisms like precinct committees that are integrated into decision making.

We need to have plans, and stick to them, not change them at the whim of a new Councillor or business interest.

We need to change the culture of Council to one of genuine consultation and financial transparency.

SOURCE:

Statement, 29 Aug 2017

Kate da Costa, The Greens