Burt Errington
Jun 22, 2024
A reply from the Ministers office regarding our Promised shop
The Beaches Action Group have finally received an official reply from State Planning NSW to our questions (below) we wanted answered on behalf of our community.
Dear Mr. Thomas
Thank you for finally getting back to The Beaches Action Group (BAG) Via The Hon Yasmin Catley MP. Unfortunately, your response had nothing to do with the question we had asked you, which was sent from the BAG on the 7th of August 2023, 7 months ago. Our community will be very disappointed in the Minister for Planning, Paul Scully's lack of understanding of our situation.
The community of Beaches Estate had been promised a shop/Cafe for over six years now by Mr. Bryan Rose, the director of Coastal Hamlets, the developer. During the BAG meetings with Mr. Rose, he has promised several times over the last three years to put in a Development Application for neighbourhood shops. All of these promised DA's were to be submitted within a couple of months of each of our meetings, but they never eventuated. At this stage we believe he has no intention of building any shops whatsoever.
So, if I may, I will this time put it as simply as possible for The Minister and yourself to completely comprehend and answer the original question.
What we are asking you to do is to make sure that the Developer, builds the shop/cafe, as promised, before any lots are registered in the Oceanside Estate as according to Mod 7 which was passed by your department and local council (LMCC) whereby stage 3 be split into 3A and 3B so the SHOPS/CAFE can be built FIRST before the residential Oceanside Estate.
In your recent response to the BAG; "The developer has advised that the final Stage 3 works of the development, which include the retail lot and village park, are on track to be delivered by mid-2024.
This does not mention a Shop/cafe, it mentions a retail lot which means a lot of land prepared for retail use which can be sold if the developer chooses to do so. Your condition of approval for splitting stage 3 was that the neighbourhood shops were to be built. The condition was about shops not about a retail lot.
Please be aware that currently there are no shops of any kind in the Catherine Hill Bay area. Residents here have to travel at least 15 minutes at 80kph to get a bottle of milk or a loaf of bread. The promise of a neighbourhood shop was made to the land purchasers who bought into the Beaches Estate and was recently promised again to the land purchasers of Oceanside. The last residential stage of the Estate.
We are not interested in what issues the developer is having with the development.
We ARE interested in the shop/cafe and if he will build it or not build it, the community is sick and tired of getting the runaround.
We want The Honourable Paul Scully MP, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces to make sure The Beaches Estate gets their shop/cafe as promised.
Please don't take another seven months to respond. This is important to our community and there is a lot of development work underway already. We feel we are running out of time!
Yours sincerely.
Below is a response we just recently received from State Planning NSW.
FW: Re The Hon Paul Scully MP Response to Beaches Estate Development/Shops -Catherine Hill Bay update
Stuart Withington <Stuart.Withington@planning.nsw.gov.au> May 6, 2024, 1:51 PM (12 days ago)
to me, James
Dear Mr. Hensby
Thank you for your email and discussion on 16 April 2024. The Department understands your frustration with the delays in the development of neighbourhood shops for the area. Neither the Department or the Minister have the ability to require the developer to build the shops. What has been done is to provide approval for the developer to subdivide the site to provide a suitable lot for retail use. The assessment report for the subdivision states that ‘future development of the lot will be subject of a separate development application to Council, to be considered against the relevant DCP for the site’.
We have recently been in contact with both Council and a representative of the developer. The Stage 3 and Village Park subdivision works currently occurring on the site should be completed this year. We don’t have any update on timing of lodgment for any DA for the construction and use of shops, this remains up to the developer. Once a DA is lodged with Council it will be publicly exhibited.
All the best
Stuart Withington | Team Leader
A few points we would like to point out about the reply from Stuart Withington:
1. Neither the Department or the Minister have the ability to require the developer to build the shops.
2. What has been done is to provide approval for the developer to subdivide the site to provide a suitable lot for retail use.
3. Future development of the lot will be subject of a separate development application to Council.
4. We (Ministers Office) have been in contact with both Council and a representative of the developer.
5. We (Ministers Office) don’t have any update on timing of lodgement for any DA for the construction and use of shops – this remains up to the developer.
We have had many discussions with Mr. Bryan Rose
During our talks with Bryan Rose, he has repeatedly told us that a DA for the shop was going to Council in a matter of months and sometimes weeks. This has never happened. Mr. Rose also mentioned at more than one meeting that if the situation regarding the shop was to prove too difficult, he would just forget the whole thing and sell the land to a buyer who may build the shops.
Letter from Mr. Bryan Rose as one example
(Reference to this can be found on our website under NEWS). We had also spoken to Mr. Rose about the empty lot at 46 Rockpool Rd, which he stated was excess land no longer required by Solo Water, we asked if that was the case then could he use it as a local park/playground for the Estate. At the time he agreed to look into it, it was possibly something they could do. On further investigation we have discovered this land was subdivided in December 2022, with the condition there were to be no dwellings allowed. Since that conversation the lot has been filled in with what appears to be excess soil from the current earth works in Stage 3. But as yet we have heard nothing yet from Mr. Rose as to what the land will be used for.
Since our first talks with Mr. Rose when he agreed that Burt Errington would be his only contact point for Beaches Estate, until currently when he no long takes our calls or emails, we feel that he has been telling us what he thinks we want to hear. So now that we have been challenging in our conversations, he has had enough of us and has decided to speak with the Alliance instead. Where the Alliance has been happy with their conversations with Mr. Rose, we were not and decided to pursue a different avenue with the Minister of Planning. As you can see from the letters included between the Beaches Action Group and the Government, help has not been forthcoming.
With the latest response from the Office for the Minister of Planning, (Stuart Withington) we feel that both the NSW Government and Lake Macquarie City Council (LMCC) have let us down. From giving approval to a subdivision of Stage 3 for the building of neighbourhood shops the language is now all about a retail lot, which is basically a block of land zoned for retail. As to a park and playground, the wording is all about the Village Green with its Passive Space.
Council have also disclosed that the CHB Master Concept Plan will only go ahead once the funds become available. Council knows only too well that there is no infrastructure in our area, including parks, public toilets, park benches, walking paths to local beaches and of course no shops. Yet they continue to allow the developer to sell the new Oceanside Estate stating that they are 7 parks in the Estate and that shops are “coming soon!”
We at the Beaches Action Group feel that now is the time for ACTION, By the Community, For the Community.
To enable any further action, we need the help of Beaches Residents to explore avenues that will help us achieve our goals.
We are asking for ideas, strategies on how to proceed, commitment of support and dedication to participate in the decisions which would be agreed upon.
Please leave your comments in the Comments Section under “Strategies”.
Thank you.
The Beaches Action Group