Our October 2006 newsletter is out - COMMUNITY TO FIGHT FOR RALPHS BAY IN THE R.P.D.C.

You can download the newsletter as a 352Kb PDF here.

The Resource Planning and Development Commission (RPDC) has recommended to Planning Minister, Steve Kons, that an assessment should be undertaken into a statewide canal estate ban across local government planning schemes.

Under the Land Use Planning Approvals Act (LUPAA) 1993, Save Ralphs Bay Inc. lodged a Draft Planning Directive with the RPDC in August to prohibit canal estates in Tasmania, consistent with a canal estate ban in the Kingborough Planning Scheme 2000 (see attached).  Under LUPAA, the RPDC is required to work towards consistency across Tasmania’s local government planning schemes and Save Ralphs Bay Inc argues that the bar now needs to be set higher in order to protect Tasmania’s coastal values.

If implemented, this Draft Planning Directive would not affect the Walker Project of State Signficance (PoSS) assessment for Tasmania’s first canal estate development, in Ralphs Bay.  A PoSS over-rides local government planning schemes.  It would however, set an important benchmark for future coastal management in Tasmania.

’The Government feels the promenade would create a high level of division in the community and would, undoubtedly, involve a lengthy and adversarial planning process.’

Well, of course, Ralphs Bay came to mind ...

Without even a hint of irony, and I couldn’t see any sign his tongue was wedged into his cheek, the Premier told journalists that this was a “pet project” of the Liberals, that local residents didn’t wanted their foreshore spoiled with an “unsightly footpath”, that Battery Point should not be “polluted” with a concrete walkway.

The proponents of Tasmania’s first canal housing estate in Ralphs Bay seem prepared to cynically exploit poor sewage infrastructure in Lauderdale, and the Clarence Council’s apparent willingness to shirk its responsibility to fully fund the necessary upgrade, Save Ralphs Bay Inc. said today.

SRB Inc communications’ coordinator, Cassy O’Connor, said residents should not be misled by the developer’s statement that it would fund the sewage pipeline from Rokeby to Lauderdale. 

“Walker Corporation proposes to pay for the pipeline only to its intended canal estate development, NOT to the residents of Lauderdale itself.