Pollies united in craving to save Earl Hill

THE rare spectre of bipartisanship has materialised over a push to block a 24-home residential development on Earl Hill at Trinity Beach.

Barron River MP Craig Crawford has taken Environment Minister Steven Miles for a walk up the hill’s popular walking track to see for himself why it should be saved.

“His words to me were, ‘We can’t be building on this. This has got to be used for recreational things’. He’s thrown his support completely behind my proposal to bring it back into government, or certainly public, hands,” Mr Crawford said.

The State Government is due to enter negotiations with developer Consolidated Properties while reserving the right to compulsorily acquire the land if a deal cannot be struck.

“That does get messy, it can involve lawyers and everyone walks away from that feeling a bit down,” Mr Crawford said.

On the other side of politics, LNP candidate for Barron River Michael Trout has set up a Save Earl Hill website, complete with online petition, to protect one of the largest stretches of bushland left in the Northern Beaches.

Mr Trout said the former Beattie Government missed the opportunity to preserve Earl Hill when it and the Blue- water marina property were bought under an act of parliament.

“Why wasn’t that land preserved? It’s a little bit late, and a little bit rich, for the Member for Barron River to come out saying he wants to buy the land,” he said.

“Any normal government would have preserved that land when you’ve got a material change of use to build a marina development.”

Consolidated Properties spokesman Lachlan Grantley said the company had every intention to develop the Earl Hill land.

“The market is maturing there, so that’s where the opportunity is,” he said.

“We’re going full steam ahead on designing and getting an application to lodge.”

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