Tweed Echo – Issue 4.21 – 26/01/2012

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THE TWEED

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Volume 4 #21 Thursday, January 26, 2012 This is our final print edition! But you can still get your Echo news free, every day, at:

LOCAL & INDEPENDENT

www.echonetdaily.net.au

NETDAILY

Crs fail to ban dogs Steve Spencer

A bid to ban pet dogs at the massive Kings Forest housing development to prevent the extinction of a nearby koala colony has failed, with Tweed councillors voting instead for a raft of watered-down dog-control measures in the soon to be approved mini-city. Ways and means of controlling dogs in the estate dominated discussion during a marathon debate on Tuesday to finalise council’s submission on the future community of 4,500 new homes, before it is approved by the state government. The packed public gallery which overflowed outside, one of the biggest ever to attend a council meeting, expressed their disappointment at the outcome. More than 15,000 people will eventually live in Kings Forest, to be built on some of the shire’s best koala habitat, just northwest of Cabarita. The development is being carried

out by Leda Developments, headed by billionaire Bob Ell. The company recently also won state approval for its 5,500-home Cobaki estate in the north of the shire. The crowded public gallery regularly applauded councillors pushing for koala-saving amendments. Crs Dot Holdom and Katie Milne led the bid to exclude dogs from the estate but they didn’t have the numbers.

Fences and gates Councillors finally agreed to request that Kings Forest residents be forced to keep their dogs behind high fences and self-locking gates (see story below). They also want residents to pay higher rates to fund council dog patrols and for the planning department to consider banning breeds that are aggressive, can dig under fences or develop a ‘pack mentality’. But they backed away from limiting

the number of pooches per property and size of dogs at Kings Forest to under seven kilograms, or forcing owners to tether dogs on two-metre leads overnight to stop them savaging the naturally-roaming koalas. It is feared many of the dwindling marsupials will return to their old feed trees, even if they have since been fenced in yards containing dogs. A bid to have dogs banned from the eastern half of the estate also failed. Cr Holdom warned that Kings Forest would forever change the Tweed Coast, and as chairman of the Tweed Coast Koala Advisory Group she would continue to ‘fight the war’ to save the koala colony. Council planners still have concerns about the number and close proximity of three proposed roads intersecting with the Tweed Coast Road. The dedication of environmental continued on page 2

State govt asked to approve koala measures After shying away from a complete ban on dogs in order to save the Tweed Coast’s koala population, Tweed councillors have asked the state government to consider seven amendments before giving approval to the new Kings Forest development. The most controversial one is the first, to remove from council’s submission a recommendation for a complete ban on dogs. The second one is to advise the planning department of concerns, as identified in the developer’s koala plan of management, to ensure the continued healthy existence of koalas and consideration of the threat of dogs. The third is that all dogs must be

enclosed in fully fenced and selfclosing gated yards. The fourth is provision be made to enable additional patrols and compliance by council rangers to police the restrictions by a sinking fund, provided by the developer, and a different rate be paid by future owners (who own a dog) at Kings Forest, in perpetuity. The fifth asks the department to source a list of dogs that are historically known to be aggressive, predatory by nature and/or have a propensity to dig and tunnel or develop a ‘pack mentality’, and that those breeds form a list of banned dogs at Kings Forest. The sixth is that the department

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gives ‘serious consideration to the fact that an application has been made to list the Tweed Coast koala population as endangered and that the council’s draft plan of management is due to be placed before the Tweed Coast Advisory Group shortly and the Australian Federal Parliament Senate Report on Koalas is due for release shortly’. The final amendment asks that all swimming pools and surrounding fencing must be designed in such a way that ‘should any koala accidentally fall into a pool, provisions are there for a koala to remove itself by way of steps, ropes and the like, as it is a fact that koalas do fall from trees into swimming pools’.

Heading in a new direction Luis Feliu

This issue is the final print edition of the Tweed Shire Echo, marking the 172nd week the paper has covered local issues in depth and given communities across Tweed shire a muchneeded voice in their campaigns to stop inappropriate development. We will of course continue this tradition on the web and keep you informed on all the big issues that count in our Echonetdaily, and we encourage those not already registered to do so. It’s free and gives you not just Tweed news but a snapshot of all the main news and issues in the Northern Rivers region, around the nation and the globe, with the added feature of video stories. When we launched the Tweed Echo in August 2008, we were surprised to take the lion’s share of the shire’s read-

Tweed Echo editor Luis Feliu browses Echonetdaily on an iPad. Photo Jeff ‘I What?’ Dawson

ership so quickly, what with such a saturated newspaper market. But with four existing weeklies giving readers much the same stories, it was hard sometimes to tell them apart – which is never a problem with The Echo! It was a calculated risk but we certainly punched above our weight and gave the community an important platform. Thousands of readers welcomed and trusted us and our fresh, fearless, independent, balanced and well-researched coverage of issues close to their hearts. Some of the issues that come to mind which we have reported on widely and thoroughly in order to accomplish better outcomes include the world motor rally, water supply and the Byrrill Creek dam, the development control plan for Hastings Point, protecting prime agricultural land at Cudgen, the Cabarita Beach South continued on page 2

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Tweed Echo – Issue 4.21 – 26/01/2012 by Echo Publications - Issuu