Mullumbimby Action Group -> latestnews -> lecourtballina

Land and Environment Court Woolworths vs Byron Council, Adjourned Until late November

In the case of Woolworths vs Byron shire Council, The Land and Environment court has adjourned until probably November 18,19 & 20 in Sydney.

After lengthy legal argument, Woolworths counsel asked for an adjournment so they could present the amended plans for the sewerage system. There was much discussion about whether changes to the on-site waste water system OSMS would require a modification to the Section 96 approval for the supermarket, and re-application to the Department of Planning.
Commissioner Hussey stated that the court must make a final decision. The decision must be yes or no. It cannot be subject to another approval somewhere else.

We still have not seen the new sewage plans for Woolworths, about which we were supposed to be addressing the court! Since the Woolworths case was apparently still not ready, Tim Robertson, our Counsel, informed the court that we would be filing for Wws to pay the extra costs of having another hearing later. There are 3 main contentious issues: 1) Groundwater 2) Buffers 3) Pumpout. Our independent experts will be taking new soil samples from 27cm down and members of MCAN are glad that at last independent tests are being taken.

Commissioner Hussey also requested that all documents related to the case should be lodged two weeks before the re-commencement of the hearing. This is so all the material can be read understood and checked in time.

We later asked Tim Robertson  after the court session had closed , why it is that developers seem to be unable to provide adequate plans with their Development Applications.
He replied that for a long time in this State, developers have been able to lodge sketchy  poor quality applications and no one has given them sufficient scrutiny. Thus many poor quality developments have been passed.

So our community's efforts have shown up the poor quality material that Woolworths have supplied in this whole soggy saga. If they had done a proper job in the first place they may have had their supermarket running by now. Congratulations to all those who have put in the hard yards.