Bega Valley Mayor Kristy McBain says the council is standing up for the needs of ratepayers at next week's Land and Environment Court hearing.
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The council has been working with the developer of a marina proposal at Cattle Bay, Eden, for some time. However, the rejection of several modification requests has resulted in the proponents heading to the court to argue their case.
Discussions over the Cattle Bay Marina in a council meeting in December 2016 are at the centre of a code of conduct breach revealed by Fairfax Media this week.
However, Cr Kristy McBain said linking the code of conduct breach by fellow councillor Robyn Bain to the court hearing is "misguided".
Fairfax revealed a code of conduct complaint was lodged against Cr Robyn Bain after she posed questions to the Cattle Bay proponents regarding their intention for the site and funding, without disclosing her husband has direct links to an, arguably, competing development proposal.
Cr Robyn Bain's conflict of interest is non-pecuniary, but she was called out by Cattle Bay representative Mike Skitt as out of order during the December council meeting.
An independent reviewer appears to have concurred, finding Cr Robyn Bain in breach of the code and directing her to publicly apologise within three months.
The council claims the conciliation hearing scheduled for Monday in the Land and Environment Court is unrelated, but did not add further detail to the results of code of conduct discussions held in closed session last week.
“Any link to code of conduct matters currently before council are misguided,” the Mayor said.
“We are working within a state government framework that says such matters need to be done confidentially – these matters are not part of Monday’s conciliation.
“I understand the interest and can assure the community and local media that details will be made public when appropriate,” Cr Kristy McBain said.
“Council is engaging with the proponents of the Cattle Bay Marina development in good faith, but will be standing up for the needs of ratepayers at Monday’s conciliation hearing with the NSW Land and Environment Court.”
Mayor Kristy McBain said an expectation that ratepayers should pay for road and sewerage upgrades tied to the development was unfair.
“Our position is that developers are charged Section 64 and Section 94A charges in order to reduce the long term burden on the community,” she said.
“The proponents of the marina argue that we should reduce or waive these charges. Council and I believe the community think otherwise, and that is why the Land and Environment Court is involved.”
The charges in dispute will add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars and are formulated based on the total value of the development and the additional demand it places on public infrastructure – stage 1 has been reported to be worth around $5.5million, which consists of a 154-berth marina.
Later stages include a 4.5-star resort as well as 60 dwellings and retirement living with a reported value of around $55million.
“We are keen to see the marina advance and add to Eden’s appeal,” Cr Kristy McBain said.
“But this is a commercial development and improvements to Cattle Bay Road and connection to the shire’s sewerage system need to part of the proponents expenses and not shifted to ratepayers.”
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