Tensions rise in Fingal Head

By Jo Kennett

AN EMERGENCY community meeting has been held in Fingal Head to discuss the potential impacts of the redevelopment of the general store.

The store was sold in 2021 to the owners of two Gold and Tweed Coast bakeries, with concerned expressed at the time at the closure of the 115-year-old post office.

“The community of Fingal Head were promised by the new owners that they were intending to reopen the store as a ‘modern take on a general store’,” one resident, who didn’t want to be named, said.

“However, the resulting development application (DA) submitted into council over the Christmas period was for something quite different.

“The large scale of the proposed development by the family of the Gold Coast bakery businesses has shocked residents living in Fingal Head.

“This is a destination bakery. It’s not for the community. They will bring all their followers from the Gold Coast like they did with Cubby.”

According to the resident, some at the meeting were in favour of the development.

“They said they were excited for fresh bread and the employment opportunities for them or their children as the DA requested 20 staff at the site,” the resident said.

“However, the majority of residents were highly concerned about this sort of large-scale industrial activity on land that is zoned residential amongst residential housing.

“Residents are worried that a once small shop and post office that operated for the benefit of the residents between 7am and 6pm could now be replaced by a largescale industrial bakery with a social media wall aimed at Gold Coast visitors.

“With operating hours from 4.30am and a liquor licence until midnight every night of the week residents expressed concerns for the peace of the village and environmental concerns associated with this type of development.”

Another attendee said they took an unofficial poll and around 75 per cent of the attendees voted the new development “be totally denied or altered”.

“Only 25 per cent thought that it should be approved,” but it was later confirmed that some of those in favour were non-residents of Fingal Head and associates of the new owners.

“One person from outside the community was caught recording the meeting and was asked to stop, as this was a closed meeting for the local community.”

Another resident told The Weekly the community would be without a general store because the store area was so small they couldn’t stock the goods their community needs.

“We are not zoned for this kind of a business and at no time in nearly two years have the owners ever let anyone know what was going on,” the local said.

“The DA should have been submitted in 2021, but it wasn’t until they put a new 500 kilowatt transformer, which no one needs except an industrial bakery.

“It’s the first disharmony in the village. We want a business to succeed here, we really do, but we want a business that fills the needs of the community.”

New owner Ursula Watts said the power upgrade encompassed the “commercial component of the shop and also a house on the same power source.”

“As we plan to make a lot of products in the shop ourselves (rather than buy it from suppliers) we need different types of equipment to be able to do this,”she said.

“To run equipment during the day simultaneously, we need adequate power available.

“As to supplying our other shops, we’ve sold Bam Bam Bakehouse and both Cubby and Custard are self-sufficient.”