About-face over tavern

Council’s Chinderah backflip shocks town planner

IT took three years of planning and two years of public consultation for Chinderah Tavern owners Taphouse finally to secure council approval for a $7.275 million upgrade.

Well so they thought. Tweed’s green mayor, Katie Milne, is now trying to take the approval back off them – something town planner of almost 30 years John O’Grady has never seen before.

The development application was approved by councillors 5-2 on July 19.

But this week Cr Milne and councillors Chris Cherry and Ron Cooper put up a motion to rescind the decision.

In a statement, Cr Milne said she hoped to get more feedback from the community.

“It will be a significant development for Chinderah and it is important that we get it right,” she said.

If the rescission motion is carried at Thursday’s meeting, the three councillors hope to invite residents and businesses – and they will mail absentee Chinderah property owners – to a meeting to “gain a better understanding of the concerns arising from this development and to allow those supporting it to express their views”.

However, the developers and their town planners believe that has already happened as they went through the legislated 30-day exhibition from April 12, 2017 to May 12, 2017. Eleven submissions were made, 10 with concerns about the development that were all addressed by council officers, and one in favour.

In the council officers’ recommendation it states: “It should be noted that in the early stages of this DA (development application), a comprehensive community consultation process was undertaken in accordance with relevant statutory and policy requirements, including advertising in the Tweed Link, sign erected on site, and a substantial mail out of notification to adjoining and surrounding property owners and residents”.

Mr O’Grady said he did not see any benefit in a new consultation process because “they had already been through it all before”.

“It has been on exhibition at the clients’ hotel, prior to lodging the DA, for about two-anda-half years,” he said.

“There have certainly been lots of opportunities to get involved and presumably the land owner will have to pay to do the process again because council don’t seem to fork out for these sorts of projects.”

Cr Milne did not respond to requests for comment.