14 AUGUST 2020
ISSUE 255
REAL INDEPENDENT LOCAL WEEKLY NEWS
News
Grow your own way
Council will seek community feedback on the ongoing management of Central Coast Stadium after knocking back a proposal from the Mariners. See page 5
News
Mountain bikers have welcomed a decision by Central Coast Council to hold off on a decision that would have banned them from COSS lands...
After a tumultuous 12 months of fires, floods and pandemics, NSW Premier Gladys Berejikilian says the Central Coast is poised for growth, not as part of a Greater Sydney, but in its own right.
See page 6
But, she says, there are still big challenges it needs to address. The Premier visited the Coast on Tuesday, August 9, accompanied by NSW Health Minister, Brad Hazzard, and Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast, Adam Crouch.
First stop was the “topping out” ceremony at Wyong Hospital where she and the Health Minister conducted the ceremony on top of the partlyconstructed, six-storey being
built as part of a $200M hospital redevelopment. Topping out is a builder’s rite traditionally held when the last beam is placed atop a structure,
Business or in this case, the top floor is finished. “The top floor is complete and now we move to the next stage of construction,” the Premier
said. “What I’m looking forward to is construction to finish by the end of 2021 and refurbishment at the beginning of 2022. Continued page 4
Planning Panel rejects Bangaloe Stud development Kincumber & Picketts Valley Community Action Group has claimed the rejection of a controversial plan for an over 50s residential development on environmentally sensitive land at Kincumber as a “victory for the community”. The Central Coast Local Planning Panel knocked back the development application last week, following a recommendation from Central Coast Council for refusal. The $19.7M project, Choice Living Avoca, would have seen 202 manufactured homes and ancillary buildings erected on the former Bangaloe Stud site on Avoca Dr. It has been the subject of
Residents staged an on-site protest over the proposal in February
heated community opposition for months, with petitions and letters of protest lodged with Council. The panel refused the application on a number of grounds, saying it was
inconsistent with the area’s E4 Environmental Living zoning, would have resulted in additional stormwater run-off and increased downstream flooding, would have impacted the ecological values, visual and scenic quality of the area
and would have been an overdevelopment of the site. Kincumber & Picketts Valley Community Action Group (KPVCAG) spokesperson, Graham Murray, said the community was “breathing a
sigh of relief” following the panel’s decision. “Council officers did a thorough job exposing a raft of issues with the proposed development citing (amongst others) water catchment, potential contamination and pollution, flooding, heritage impacts, bush fire hazard and tree retention, loss of visual amenity contravening local character and the scenic buffer which is the intent of the E4 zoning,” Murray said. “The importance of maintaining local green hinterlands for the health of surrounding eco systems, and maintaining the local character of the area, has always been a primary concern for the community. Continued page 10
Five Central Coast businesswomen have been named as finalists in the prestigious AusMumpreneur awards, with the winners to be announced... See page 26
Sport
Central Coast Cycling Club’s U15 women’s dynamic duo, Liliya Tatarinoff and Nicole Duncan, were once again on the winners’ podium... See page 40
Puzzles page 23
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