Goodbye Village- Hello Suburban Strip.

The sun sets on the scenic buffer zone for Milton.

On Tuesday night I went to Council prepared to challenge the loss of the scenic preservation of Milton Meadows. If Milton is to loose this scenic buffer that helps identify the village, then at the very least there should be some social benefit in the form of a Retirement Village.

A Retirement Village is what the developer has said he wants.

High Care facilities is what the region needs.

The State Government have given the extra bonus to the developer by demanding a residential zoning for rural lots.

The Liberal faction of Council ( Clrs Ward, Guile, Bennett, Soames and Brumerskyi) are determined to see that the developer gets a choice of subdivision or the retirement village plan.

The developer will then have a seriously enhanced asset that could be sold for sub-division at any time.

The votes were cast on Tuesday night with one councillor away a tied vote of 6/6 meant the Mayor had to use his casting vote. He voted with the group of Councillors who wanted to insure that the land was not frittered away into subdivision but allow the developer his dream of building a retirement village.

Milton residents could only enjoy this reasonable decision for about 20 mins as Liberal Councillors, Ward, Guile and Brumerskji lodged a recision motion knowing that in two weeks time when the absent Councillor Josi Young returns they will have the numbers to give the developer a gift and rob Milton of its character.

To add insult to the situation Clrs Young and Proudfoot are supposed to represent Milton and support the change in zoning to allow subdivision.

Councillor Guile suggested that we could control subdivision through adding control plans. He seems to have forgotten that once the zoning is issued the Land and Environment Court would see this as the overriding land use and approve an application for subdivision regardless of the intent to build a retirement village.

This issue has outed the hypocrites, the hollow promises to work together, to consider consensus decision making and support our communities through representation.

I'm sure if the villages represented by the Liberal faction where in the same situation it would be entirely different.

So whats left to do- All Milton/Ulladulla residents need to lobby the Councillors particularly the ones who represent this area and ask them to see sense in the compromise of not changing the land from rural to residential- but still allow the opportunity for retirement living focusing on the needs of the community and delivering a high care facility.

Travel Expenses Reviewed

(photo caption: Clearing out the old to make way for the new!)

A recent review of travel expenses for Crown employees has been conducted. The findings of the review has recommended a downward shift in the milage allowance payable. This downward shift has seen 9c removed from the top rate now payable at 75c a kilometre and an increase in the rate for smaller cars increaseing from 57.5c to 63c a kilometre.

The Premiers office say the changes are required to bring the payment in line with the rates declared by the Taxation Office.

I beleive this downsizing of the allowance to be a good move, as there is a more incentive for crown employees ( includes Councillors) to drive smaller cars- the previous top rate of 86.2 c per kilometre provided no incentive at all.

Smaller more fuel efficeint cars on the road will help to reduce transport CO2 emissions.

I am looking forward to 2010 when the first commercially available full electric cars are supposed to be introduced on the Australian market. I wonder how the tax department will deal with travel allowance then!

Milton Meadows- Caught between a rock and a hard place.

This coming Tuesday 11 August brings to Councils agenda the rezoning of 15 hectares
(37 acres) of land in Milton, that helps to create the rural interface between town and farmland. The motion that is currently on the paper I just cannot support as it opens up the potential to subdivide the land into a large lot subdivision (down to 2000sqm if dual occupancy is applied, call this plan A).
This is completely at odds with the original reason behind the rezoning application for a retirement village with a high care facility.
A request has been made to staff to offer up a way forward that protects the land from large lot subdivision but gives the developer the opportunity to move ahead with the original retirement village plan (call this plan B).
So by supporting Plan B, I find myself "between a rock and a hard place" as I am effectively supporting development on land that the community wanted quarantined against development to help retain the village atmosphere of Milton.
However, by voting NO for plan B, I help turn the land over to more development that has no social benefit. The owner of the land already has the existing rights to carve the block into 4 portions, which I think is ample development for this part of town. I would like to vote to retain the current zoning, but as a loan Green voice in Council, I simply won't have the numbers to block the development. In Milton there is already ample land zoned to accomodate retirement living, we don’t need to rezone any prime farmland.

For more history read on…..

The land that is known as Milton Meadows is on the Southern side of Milton. Mostly a hillside that once was cleared it has some remnant rainforest vegetation along an intermittent creek bank. The land helps to give a rural edge to Milton and joins on to other farmland, a school and some residential blocks.
When creating a Strategy plan for the future of the district Shoalhaven Council consulted with the community on a number of things, strong representations were given to council that wanted coastal villages to maintain their own identity and not become a homogenous never ending suburb!
So, it was with this in mind that the land was given a scenic hatching or a special zoning that meant the land couldn’t be turned into suburbia!
Over the years, the developer of this land put pressure on Council to remove the special zoning to allow them to develop a retirement village. Council eventually caved to this pressure.

If you feel strongly about this issue please contact myself and Shoalhaven City Council.

The Great Disruption- Climate Change Commentry

Paul Gilding has been an activist for sustainability for 35 years, working for NGOs, business and government. He explains why physics and biology have determined that our current model for economic growth is finished, and how the human race will face its biggest challenge ever.

Click on Paul's name above and go listen to the Audio file archived by ABC Radio's Background Briefing.

I found Paul's discussion insightful and wondered why couldn't more people see things in this way.

Check out the theories of Jared Diamond on why societies chose to succeed or collapse. His book Collapse is very interesting but this video gives the time poor insight into Jared's thoughts.

ABC Knit In Tuesday 4 August at Nowra Library.

A mountain of knitted squares ready to be 'Wrapt with love' Image courtesy of ABC Radio web site!

Nowra Library 10.30am will play host to Tuesday 4 August Knit in event. I have packed my needles and wool and will join the knitters for a morning of clatter and chatter!

Community Radio

Last weeks Council meeting saw a huge turn out in the gallery. Not only were the residents of Worrigee out in force but supporters for 2UUU(Shoalhaven FM).

Shoalhaven FM is a community radio station that has been around since broadcasting a variety of shows with volunteer presenters. It all seems fairly innocuous, but then there is this small niggling issue of its links with the Shoalhaven Independents Group (Greg Watson's mob). Ex Mayor Greg is notorious for having one of the largest local government campaign funds in years (+$90K) and a business connected to him have been long term 'Sponsors' of the station. One ex member of the Shoalhaven Independent group Jim McCrudden is now a presenter who enjoys having a dig a council and all other levels of government. None of this really bothers me it all fits within the legal framework of community broadcasting.

What does bother me though is the very loose policy statement that gives donations for this radio station ( and one other) without, in my opinion a strong application process.

All other applicants who seek funding from council must present a comprehensive application to council that has a budget attached and some form of documentation in regards to the commercial or non commercial status of the organisation. It would seem fair to me that community radio stations should not be exempt from this process and should provide council a copy of their financial statements and a statement of the years activities. This way should any one ask why are they receiving funding, there is a solid information to provide.