BURLEIGH BUST-UP
ACTING Mayor Donna Gates and Gold Coast City councillor Peter Young have teed off at each other at a full council meeting about a golf course development.
The Acting Mayor became frustrated as Cr Young asked questions about an application for a multi-level retirement village and wellness centre on the Burleigh Golf Club course.
Cr Gates told him he should have asked the questions at a planning committee last week.
ACTING Mayor Donna Gates and Gold Coast City councillor Peter Young have teed off at each other at a full council meeting about a golf course development.
Cr Gates, filling in for Mayor Tom Tate who is overseas, started the meeting by showing a Commonwealth Games video she hoped would galvanise council as a united team.
But facing outside media engagements and eager to get through the agenda, the Acting Mayor became increasingly frustrated as Cr Young asked questions about an application for a multi-level retirement village and wellness centre on the Burleigh Golf Club course.
Contacted last Friday by a concerned resident living opposite the course, Cr Young asked why planning officers had encouraged the developer to use a superseded City Plan to get the application passed.
Cr Gates told him he should have asked the questions, which included plans for the footprint of a wellness centre, at a planning committee last week.
“I received an email from a resident on Friday afternoon. I’m just doing my public duty,” he replied.
Residents in the packed gallery began cheering Cr Young, but planning committee chairman Cameron Caldwell and Robina colleague Hermann Vorster rolled their eyes and began pouring water into their glasses from a jug on the table.
Cr Young told Cr Gates: “On the weekend I was quite busy – I don’t know about you – doing council stuff and other things.”
Cr Gates replied: “That’s very funny.”
Cr Young then told the Acting Mayor: “I only finalised these particular questions 30 minutes before being in this building, and I believe this is the appropriate forum.”
Outside the meeting, Cr Gates admitted she was frustrated by Cr Young’s questioning given he had been at the planning committee earlier.
“I was frustrated because it was an extensive questioning process that the officers were not expecting, and as such they didn’t have all the information to deal sufficiently with his questions.”
Only Cr Young and Daphne McDonald opposed the Burleigh golf course development. All councillors supported a recommendation from the lifestyle and community committee meeting last week to find a new operator for the Helensvale golf club.
The future of the councilowned course had remained uncertain after its leaseholder, Jigsaw Community Services, went into liquidation.
Outside the meeting, Helensvale-based councillor William Owen-Jones said: “I’m looking forward to interested parties making submissions.”
He expects the council will publicise the tender by Saturday with the process taking four weeks.