POTATO HEADS
Tweed blocks hospital site because it’s a spud farm
TWEED Shire Council have voted down plans for a badly-needed new hospital at Kingscliff to save a local sweet potato farm.
The bizarre decision has infuriated the NSW state government, with Health Minister Brad Hazzard saying councillors had suffered a “brain explosion”.
THE NSW government is furious with the Tweed Shire Council decision to vote down plans for a $534 million hospital at Kingscliff in favour of a sweet potato farm.
But the council, which voted to block the deal 4-3, says it is doing it because of global warming and food security.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he was stunned by the snub, saying the four councillors who shot down the proposal either had “a brain explosion or some agenda that is defying community interest. I don’t get it”.
At a council meeting on Thursday night, Mayor Katie Milne and Councillors Ron Cooper, Reece Byrnes and Chris Cherry voted against the hospital being built on the Cudgen Road site. The other councillors — James Owen, Warren Polglase and Pryce Allsop — were in favour.
“I don’t understand why four of the seven council members would be seeking to oppose land for the hospital that is immediately adjacent to the land their own council recommended. It is nonsensical,” Minister Hazzard said.
He said the council had been consulted a number of times after owners of the farm had offered it for sale, and feared the rejection would likely delay the build.
Medical services at Tweed are bursting at the seams. Re- ports dating back seven years warned of a 47 per cent spike in residents aged 65 and older and NSW patients going to the new Gold Coast University Hospital for treatment.
Last year, the Tweed hospital’s Medical Staff Council called on the NSW Government for the urgent facility upgrades.
The 23-hectare site on Cudgen Rd is opposite the Kingscliff TAFE and listed as State Significant Farmland. State Government announced the area as the new hospital site in April after exploring more than 30 options.
Tweed Mayor Katie Milne , did not respond to questions from the Bulletin yesterday.
Cr Cooper said the farming land needed to be preserved.
“The State Government has protected that land for years, now suddenly there are happy to trash their own protection policy,” Cr Cooper said.
“The value of the land is for future generations. We don’t know what sort of problems the world is going to face with global warming.”
About 3000 people signed a petition supporting preservation of the Cudgen Rd site.
“Our area needs a hospital, but this is land that should never be built on,” said resident Hayley Paddon.
“This is prime agricultural land, the best soil in Australia and we are going to put concrete on it. You wouldn’t see China doing this, we need to think about where we grow.”