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Collapse Issue 553:<br />19 Sep 2022<br />_____________Issue 553:
19 Sep 2022
_____________
Collapse  COASTAL TWIST COASTAL TWIST
Coastal Twist Festival starts Tuesday, September 27
Visual arts exhibition
Foxy Silvers Waterfront Picnic
Free youth 'pink light' fluoro dance party
Design thinking and innovation workshop
Drag Bingo
Free beach picnic party day
Fair day is festival centrepiece
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Court approves five-storey plan after council agrees
Gone fishing
Aboriginal skipper qualifies as First Fleet class master
CWA branch has lunch to 'support local business'
Men's Shed holds members' barbecue
Mingaletta invites residents to drop in
Coronavirus cases drop by half since August
Rip bridge construction photos displayed at library
Month's average rainfall in first 16 days
Collapse  PLANNING PLANNING
Revised plans lodged in response to submissions
Dual occupancy claims to be within required setbacks
Collapse  FORUM FORUM
Portal issues continue as non-compliant DA is approved
'Housing summit' supports massive Ponzi scheme
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Folk club to showcase some of greatest musicians
Flash Festival to be held next weekend
Patchwork group has 'wonky piecing workshop'
Collapse  EDUCATION EDUCATION
'Mrs Lunch' retires after 27 years
Jeans day raises $677 for medical research
Day at reptile park
Collapse  SPORT SPORT
Ettalong has resounding pennant win over Wyong
Starred in pennant win
Canoe club celebrates 25 years
Umina takes three of top four carnival places
Volunteer training for disabled surfing
Umina Beach Women's Kingfisher Carnival
Over-45 men win soccer grand finals
Under-14s take out the double
Ettalong triples championships
Woy Woy juniors play in Broken Bay championships

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'Housing summit' supports massive Ponzi scheme

It's official.

According to the recent summit on the "housing crisis" attended by developers, landowners, builders, planners and anybody else who stands to make a quick buck from the "housing crisis", the community is an obstacle.

How dare they challenge the local government's soulless interpretation of medium density housing?

How dare they complain about overcrowded roads and lack of liveability?

This attitude is apparently widespread in planning circles.

At the recent meeting of the Local Planning Panel to decide a proposal for a massive five-unit complex at 42 South St, Umina, a representative of the applicant, speaking on behalf of his client's absolute right to completely block all sunlight from his neighbours during the winter months, bemoaned the fact that a "younger" age group were not represented by people making submissions to the panel.

These "people making submissions" were "well set" and "comfortable" he said, a not-so-subtle reference to the fact that they were mostly retired.

Well maybe that's because the Local Planning Panel meets in the middle of the afternoon on a working day when most "younger" people are out supporting their families and, unlike his good self, not paid to be at a Panel meeting.

One submitter against the proposal, after he'd spoken, was publicly asked by a member of the panel, where he lived.

Not only was this in direct contravention of the Privacy and Personal Information Act but, in the manner in which it was asked, implied that if he wasn't one of the unfortunate neighbours who will be forced to move due to losing all sunlight to their home during winter then he should "butt out".

It seems that council knows what's good for us and nobody's allowed to complain or suggest another way.

They might think this is a perfectly reasonably attitude but to the rest of us it's starting to look rather "Putinesque", especially in the absence of democratic representation.

The council say they have "fully consulted with the community" to explain the vital necessity to emasculate the planning regulations and "expedite" development on the Peninsula.

So why is it that ordinary residents are so shocked and dismayed to discover for instance that their next door neighbour is allowed to build two storeys literally on the boundary and block out all of their sunlight?

The council don't seem to understand why people in this circumstance selfishly complain about having scrimped and saved to pay a mortgage (and rates) all these years only to see their sunlight disappear and property value plummet.

The really ironic thing is that the planners, the government, developers and the council all claim to support "affordable" housing.

In reality, they are supporting a massive Ponzi scheme with young families at the bottom mortgaging themselves to the hilt to buy ridiculously-overpriced homes in competition with "fat cat" investors at the top.

Surely it's time that all levels of government started taking a rational, community-friendly attitude to home ownership and planning instead of devolving their responsibilities to the politics of greed.





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