Ed,
Councillor Whaites has accused the Yamba Community Action Network (YambaCAN) and any others who spoke at the negotiations with the Northern Region Planning Panel (NRPP) on Wednesday 26th October of being NIMBYs and against any development which is not true.
The members of YambaCAN are totally against unfettered development, however. There’s a movie called “The Cars that Ate Paris” and what we fear is the “Fill that Ate Yamba”.
Our approach is not the “Not in MY backyard” but more a “Not in ANYBODY’S backyard”. There have been cases where environmentally unsuitable developments have been forced on some councils by the Land and Environment Court once the developers have been rejected by council but then appealed to this State Government agency. This MUST stop!
Thousands of tonnes/cubic metres of soil have already filled much of the floodplain region along Carrs Drive with even more to come there AND at the Parkland (8 Park Ave Yamba) site according to the current plans. Yet one more development’s application for even more loads of fill has been deferred by the developer – but they’ll be back with their plan to add yet another dike to restrict flood flow from both stormwater and riverine sources.
We have to look no further than Woodburn to see the prolonged effects that restricting the normal flow of floodwaters can have. As at 27 October, 22 people are STILL living in tents and caravans as a direct result of February and March 2022 floods!
Does Councillor Whaites wish to inflict this on Yamba? Is this what a Clarence Valley Councillor wants?
One house on Yamba Rd has been demolished as uninhabitable after 15 floods in nine years! None of those prior to the fill in the Park Ave site! How many more does the councillor wish to see go?
Ian Warlters, Yamba