Pittwater Life February 2023 Issue

Editorial
Council refuses Rock role
Opponents of the Lizard
Rock housing development
proposal are waiting to see
who the NSW Department
of Planning appoints as the
project’s alternative Planning
Authority after Northern
Beaches Council rejected the
“poisoned chalice” role.
Council and myriad
community groups and
political figures have long
opposed the planning proposal
to develop land for 450
dwellings at Belrose.
Mayor Michael Regan
said: “We are declining the
government’s offer… as the
role is unlikely to give Council
any meaningful powers to
review the proposal or prevent
it from going ahead.”
Mayor Regan remains
adamant there are alternatives
that would still achieve
economic self-determination
for Aboriginal people.
In April 2022, Councillors
united to request staff write
to Federal and State MPs and
ministers to negotiate an
alternate solution so that the
landowners, the Metropolitan
Local Aboriginal Land Council
(MLALC), could benefit
financially and that the
land was preserved as is – in
perpetuity.
The responses, if any, are
unknown.
Council’s position was
echoed by Mackellar Federal
MP Dr Sophie Scamps, who
called on the State Government
to step in and purchase the
land, or agree to a longer-term
lease before transforming the
land into an Aboriginal-owned
National Park, which she says
was originally suggested by the
MLALC in 2013.
“This would be a win-win-win
situation in that the MLALC
secures a financial gain in
addition to the long-term jobs
that are created for Indigenous
people within the Park,” she
said. Story – page 8. – Nigel Wall
The Local Voice Since 1991
FEBRUARY 2023 3