Residents locked out in PUDS deadlock

The deadlocked PUDS debate at Gosford Council is the best outcome that we could hope for.

The residents have been asking council to provide more public consultation so that the implications of the document and the responses of the residents be heard.

Our council will now have another go at deal-making behind closed doors to decide the future shape and nature of the Peninsula.

The residents are locked out of the decision-making and the councillors don't know what they are doing.

Labour Party members have come out in support of the great majority of residents who don't want the Peninsula to become a suburb of Sydney on the premise that we will have to get more people here or we won't get the infrastructure needed to sustainably accommodate the extra population.

This was the position of Cr Drake while, on the previous Monday, Premier Iemma was assuring residents in the Hunter that infrastructure would be put in place before the boom arrived and would be annually reviewed.

"You can't put the cart before the horse," the Premier declared.

PUDS is a fad that has been overrun by new planning philosophies.

The state government has now introduced State Environmental Planning Policy 71 (SEPP71) to protect our coastline from overdevelopment.

In formulating any plan, one would expect council to construct a plan that at the very least ensured compliance with State Government planning policy.

If not, why not?

The community should be informed in a public forum.

Bryan Ellis, Umina