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Mayor Pynsent: Rescission motions. Councillor Stapleford.
Councillor Stapleford: Mayor Pynsent, I brought this motion back before Council because I feel that Councillors haven’t given it enough weight -
Mayor Pynsent: Excuse me, can we just, just before you start, can we have n- you're moving it, seconder is: Councillor Olsen.
Councillor Stapleford: That Councillors haven’t given enough weight to the community’s objections. It’s a very small area, ah, it’s a very beautiful area, I can understand why people want to have it there, but the neighbours will be adversely impacted by this festival. And I think Councillors should think about where it’s going to be held and I think it’s, it’s just not a suitable place.
And if you have a look later in the papers, while I was going through it, council thought that three letters of objection from seven people was significant objections, here we have nearly everyone in the area objecting to it, and I don't know how it’s got this far. It is totally not suitable for that area.
Mayor Pynsent: Councillor Troy.
Councillor Troy: Yeah, thank Mayor Pynsent. I, uh, I'll ah be voting against the rescission motion. I'm speaking against the rescission motion.
I've had multiple people come to me and no doubt other Councillors have also, who are in favour of this event, and surprisingly so. Ah, I was actually out at the Dawn Service at Paxton on ah Anzac Day, had the great privilege to be there, and I had some unlikely people come up to me and ask me how I voted. And I was kind of braced a little bit I suppose and thought, “Oh, you know, how, how was is this going to be? How has this been taken by the community?" because I've had correspondence on, on both sides of the argument.
Uh, and I had several elderly people, which really took me by surprise, who were absolutely in favour of this event. Now is, is, is just the, is just the uh, uh, well they're actually, they're all locals, they were all locals.
[barely audible voice off mike]
Councillor Troy: Mayor Pynsent?
Mayor Pynsent: Yeah thank you can the gallery um please, constrain themselves?
Councillor Troy: Nevertheless, I was surprised at the amount of support for the event and uh, and the support that continues to come in. Often times we only as Councillors hear the negative, we don’t often hear, have letters of support. From time to time we do, but in this particular instance I think it’s galvanised the community in, in in many ways. And uh, I've had, a lot of, a lot support. Those who were against it also, but I'll continue to support it because I do believe it’s for the greater good of the community.
Mayor Pynsent: Councillor Wrightson.
Councillor Wrightson: Thank you Mayor Pynsent. Look ah, I'm obviously speaking um against having this temporary event being held. It, it is undoubtedly going to be an adverse impact upon um the nearby residences and, and the community. It isn’t a suitable site wer- the, the road isn’t tar-sealed.
From memory at our last meeting, Councillor Troy and rightly so, said that temporary events which are held in the vineyards ah, are great, They're a great economic boost to the community. um A lot of people come from far afield to enjoy, to enjoy these events, but they are typically held over one day.
This temporary event, is proposed for three days and a day either side setting up and a day, you know and then packing up. So it’s, it is going to be… I, I mean the nature of a temporary event is typically a one day, or it might be markets, or it might be you know a number of hours. This is over three days. There is a cumulative impact here, that us as Councillors need to consider.
We need to stop and put ourselves in the position of the residents who are adjoining this, this proposed site.
Lastly, I'd like to go back to our uh, local environmental plan. And I would like to, uh, it is mentioned in uh, in our rescission motion, but I would just like to re-emphasize that uh under our Cessnock Local Environmental Plan, ah 2.8, at clause 2.8 it says, that development consent must not be granted unless the consent authority is satisfied that the temporary use will not adversely impact on adjoining land or the amenity of the neighbourhood.
Now how can we sit here as Councillors, and decide that the amenity is not impacted upon? It is absolutely ludicrous for us to sit here and say that, “Yes that’ll be fine.” Three days people! Put yourselves in the position of the residents please. Please reconsider your positions! Thank you.
(applause)
Mayor Pynsent: Councillor Olsen.
Councillor Olsen: Thanks Mayor Pynsent. um Myself as a Councillor I've been here for, going on, this is ah, going on sixteen years. I've always put the community first. And when the community speaks to me about their problems I listen to what they’ve got to say. And in this situation I believe they're right.
I've had, uh, the only people I've had speak to me about this have been young people. And they're saying to me, “How mad, is Cessnock Council approving a rave party for people to come up from Sydney. And just trash our neighbourhood." It’s, they, they can’t believe that we’re that, that silly to approve this type of thing out here.
We haven’t considered the traffic, we've had a Councillor sit here and tell us there’ll be no pass-outs and that’s why he was going to support it. But then there are pass-outs. We've got no, no way of controlling how many people are actually there, we say it’s fifteen hundred. How do we know there’s only going to be fifteen hundred? How do we know there’s not going to be two thousand, two and a half thousand? The applicant clearly wants to make as much money as they can.
It’s not going to benefit this community in any way. It is all about people coming up from Sydney, getting out there, partying hard for three days and then going home. It’s not about making money for this area, it’s not going to benefit this area. It, there is um, I've had some emails only, only support I had was emails come from Councillor Troy, and it was, if you read the whole email, she was, she was asking these people, “Do you support that?” Then they forwarded it on to us. So she was-
[barely audible voice off mike]
Councillor Olsen: That is in the email I have got and I have read.
Mayor Pynsent: Councillor Troy.
Councillor Troy: That’s a, what a load of garbage! What an absolute outright lie that is! And I ask Councillor Olsen to retract that and provide, provide your evidence of that. That’s an absolute lie and you just made that up on the spot!
[barely audible voice off mike]
Councillor Olsen: This, the, the email I read was written by Councillor Troy to a, a resident out there and asked them their opinion. And that’s what was forwarded to me, and it was a whole email. I read it, I, I believe other Councillors have read it as well.
[barely audible voice off mike]
Councillor Olsen: You forwarded it to me.
Mayor Pynsent: Thanks Councillors. Councillor Campbell.
Councillor Olsen: I, I haven’t finished Mayor, Mayor Pynsent. I would, I'd just ask all the Councillors here to, sit here and think about it. Would you approve a party in your next door neighbor’s yard for three days? Would you accept it?
[barely audible voice off mike]
Councillor Olsen: Would you accept it? I won't and I won't be supporting it.
[barely audible voice off mike]
Mayor Pynsent: We’re not, we’re not. You've spoken Councillor Troy.
Mayor Pynsent: I'm going to put the, put the rescission motion. Those in favour: Councillors Wrightson, Olsen, Ryan, Councillor Stapleford, Smith, Parsons. Those against: Councillor Gibson, Troy, Doherty, Hawkins, Campbell, Maybury and Pynsent. Lost.
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