Rodney Stevens

A legal bill of $40,000 has been described as ‘an expensive lesson’ by a Clarence Valley Councillor when a motion to note the Land and Environment Courts decision to uphold an appeal about a Palmers Island development application.

At its meeting on September 18, 2018, Clarence Valley Council resolved to refuse DA2021/0303 for a house at 5 Carrington Street.

The applicant lodged an appeal with the Land and Environment Court in September 2022 disputing councils’ refusal and after an on-site conciliation conference in February 2023, the court handed down its decision on March 14, 2023, to uphold the appeal and grant consent for the DA subject to conditions.

At the May 23 Clarence Valley Council meeting, Cr Bill Day said because he moved the original motion to refuse the DA, he wanted to explain the process to the community.

“I called this because I believe the community deserves transparency and an explanation for this,” he said.

“The Land and Environment Court has upheld the appeal by the people who submitted the DA and the Land and Environment Court granted consent, subject to conditions.

“Despite the fact that the Land and Environment Court accepted the DA they amended the proposal to make it more compatible with the setbacks of surrounding properties and to reduce the amount of amenity impacts on surrounding properties.”

Cr Karen Toms said the decision by the Land and Environment Court was not a good outcome for ratepayers.

“We’ve had training in planning in what we can do and what we can’t do, and this was an expensive lesson in my opinion.”

Councillors voted unanimously to support the motion to note the court judgement and the legal costs of $40,047.14, and to note the budget variation in the monthly financial report.