Mullumbimby Action Group -> latestnews -> wws2ndanniversary_161

Second anniversary of the Woolworths announcement to move into Mullumbimby.

NEW YEARS DAY is the second anniversary of the Woolworths announcement to move into
Mullumbimby.

Two years of dedicated campaigning by locals has kept them out, despite Woolworths
planning to open their doors in Mullum by the end of 2009.

The Land and Environment Court case, held in Sydney immediately before Christmas,
was condensed into less than one day. It consisted mainly of the the legal teams
and experts sitting around a table at lunchtime coming to "an agreement" about the
Consent Conditions for Woolworths to operate an on-site sewage system.

The Court case had been deferred twice over a period of four months, and was
ostensibly an appeal against Byron Shire Council's refusal of the on-site sewage
system. However, the merits of that decision were not discussed. Instead, the
legal minds conconcted a complex, cumbersome agreement which includes 200,000 litres
of sewage leaving the Mullumbimby site in tanker trucks. This is about 3 months of
the yearly sewage produced, and means that they system is an off-site rather than an
on-site system.


MCAN is disappointed that the L & E Court doesn't deal with the right or wrong of
council's approval but acts as a separate approval authority, invites countless
revisions, engages council's experts to assist in the design and then wipes its
hands of the matter. When things go ape, who will clean up the mess, who will keep
Woolworths honest, who will see that the supermarket closes when it fails to meet
its consent conditions? Will Commissioner Hussey ride to the rescue? We think not.


For more details of the case see

www.mullumaction.org newsletters.