Weather delays work at swan lake
WORK to fill in Black Swan Lake will not continue until at least Friday as lawyers for the Gold Coast Turf Club and lake supporters bounce emails off each other.
The Bulletin has obtained a letter from turf club lawyers Attwood Marshall which reveals they briefly met last Thursday to discuss the dispute about the lake.
The council has given the turf club approval to fill in what it calls the “borrow pit” at Bundall to create a horse training area and overflow car park sparking a protest and legal action from residents.
Apart from the Crime and Corruption Commission’s investigating of the Bruce Bishop car park sale, the corruption watchdog is also looking into allegations of councillors’ conflicts of interest and other development matters, including the lake.
Attwood Marshall lawyers wrote: “Our client’s project managers Cardno met with representatives of the GCCC Thursday afternoon with respect to project generally and the issues raised in your correspondence.
“We understand that Cardno can expect further feedback by the GCCC by the end of next week. The works our client has carried out have been completed with the full authority of the GCCC and our client believes it has done everything possible to ensure it has complied in every re- spect with conditions imposed by the GCCC.”
The turf club says it is waiting for a formal response from the GCCC before it can respond to complaints by the resident group.
The wet weather would prevent further works until at least Friday, the lawyers wrote.
Wilson Haynes, lawyers for the resident group, alleges “the works are unlawful, and involve the commission of development offences”.
The lawyers also alleged the development application failed to include all the mandatory information required under the Sustainable Planning Act.
For those reasons, the “development permit is liable to be set aside”, the lawyers said.