Dear Supporter,
Please see the information below to help preserve the Jetty foreshores as Foreshore For All, not Foreshore For the Few.
Please forward this message to all of your interested contacts.
Review of the CCRRA meeting on 23/07/2024
On Tuesday night a number of Foreshore for All committee members attended the Coffs Coast Ratepayers and Residents meeting at Boambee East Community Centre, to listen to Tony Judge and Gurmesh Singh speak about the proposed State Government’s Coffs Harbour Jetty Foreshores Precinct Revitalisation plans.
It was heartening to see the number of people who braved the cold conditions to attend. The hall was full. The exact number of attendees is unknown but estimates are between 150 and 200. Judging by the mood of the room, the supporters of the ‘no’ residential multi-storey development vote were far in excess of supporters of the Government plans.
Thank you to both Gurmesh Singh and Tony Judge for being prepared to front the community on this polarising issue. Gurmesh commenced proceedings with a series of slides showing the history of development plans leading up to the final refined draft masterplan as well as some slides showing results of the 2022 survey. Gurmesh then moved on to showing a picture of the City of Coffs Harbour’s concept plan for the Foreshores and proceeded to ridicule the plan. He misled the attendees by stating that this plan was a resolved plan, when in actual fact, it is just a plan showing suggestions only. When the plan was presented to the community, it came with a statement that said “This graphic is purely to generate discussion and opinion and is in no way a final resolved position”.
Tony Judge did not rely on anything other than his ability to present clear, succinct, impassioned, honest information on why the government’s plans should not proceed.
It must be pointed out that prior to the commencement of the meeting, people were told to allow the speakers to talk without interruption. There was a bit of heckling from a small number of people however they were brought to order. Tony Judge gave Gurmesh his full attention during Gurmesh’s speech. However throughout Tony Judge’s speech, Gurmesh spent much of his time on his mobile phone, and also interrupted Tony during his speech to ridicule him for getting a figure incorrect. He showed absolutely no respect for Tony at all.
There were numerous questions asked after both speakers had finished their presentations, with the majority of the questions directed at Gurmesh. This is understandable given the fact that Gurmesh, as far as I am aware, has never fronted the community on this issue before.
These are some of the questions and resulting answers from Gurmesh Singh, as well as statements made during his presentation:
Despite criticising the Council for having no costings for its concept plan, when asked, Gurmesh could not provide details of the amount of money spent on the Government plan so far, or what it would eventually cost.
He was questioned on the figure of 3600 people completing the 2022 survey versus having a poll which would result in a much higher participation rate. Gurmesh still felt the survey results were representative. It must be pointed out that 3600 people did not actually complete the survey. The survey only had a completion rate of 74% which is 2664 people.
Question 19 of the 2022 survey raised its ugly head again. This was the question that gave people three choices to select from (shortened versions of questions below):
No changes to the railway land and leave fenced and don’t get any improvements
Up to six storeys
Up to eight storeys, opening up more land for public and recreation uses
Gurmesh clearly did not seem to understand where the problem lay with this question.
One of the most enlightening questions asked was would Gurmesh support the ‘NO multi-storey residential’ case on behalf of the community if the Council poll resulted in a large “NO” vote at the Council election.
The only answer he could come up with was that he didn’t think the question was useful and it was misleading in its simplicity.
One would have hoped that if the no vote was resoundingly successful, Gurmesh would support the community he was elected to serve, but it seems possible the pull of power may have him still siding with the Labor Government.
Gurmesh stated that if the development does not go through, the community would be looking at the gravel car park forever. More of a concern is that if the development does go through, we will be looking at multi-storey buildings forever.
Gurmesh also seemed to think that the access over a railway line was OK, as there were two accesses, one being a residential street, and access was only a problem on Sundays. He compared access to the Jetty with one road in and one road out access to Mullaway and Arrawarra. Pretty ridiculous comparison.
There is probably much that has been omitted, but it is hard to remember after an event. However what was noticeable was that many people were disillusioned with Gurmesh’s dodging and weaving, and failing to answer questions, and at stages passing blame to the Labor Government when the majority of this revitalisation plan was carried out by his government.
Tony Judge did not have many questions asked of him. During his presentation, he brought up traffic issues, likely cancellation or disruption of regular Jetty events such as the markets, Carnival, Sports events if multi-storey residential goes ahead, the effect of shade from the buildings. He emphasised that once public land is sold it is gone forever..
Further information
Further in depth information regarding the Jetty Foreshore multi-storey residential development can be found on our FFA web page and also on the Jetty Foreshores – Let’s Own Our Future Facebook group which strives to provide factual information to the community on this important issue.
Thank you for your support,
The Foreshore For All Committee
Please visit the Foreshore For All website.
Email: info@foreshoreforall.com
