Councils want to halt applications in fire-risk regions

Applications for aged care and retirement village developments in areas prone to bushfires should be put on hold until August next year, according to NSW councils.

The state’s Local Government and Shires Association has called for a halt on ‘risky’ seniors living applications until the findings of the royal commission into the recent Victorian bushfires are handed down on 31 July, 2010.

The councils say that under NSW planning laws, the state government can bypass local councils and the Rural Fire Service (RFS) in certain crucial decisions, putting lives at risk.

“Pending developments in bushfire-prone areas for new facilities or the expansion of those already there need much more scrutiny to ensure our communities are well protected, especially in light of this awful tragedy,” said the president of the Local Government Association, Cr Genior McCafferty.

At the centre of the stoush between the local and state governments is a controversial application for a large seniors living community near Oxford Falls on Sydney’s north shore.

In 2005, Warringah Council rejected a proposal for the development proposal which featured a 500-unit village and a multi-storey nursing home.

One of the major reasons for the council’s decision was a concern about evacuating elderly residents in the case of a bushfire.

But the state’s minister for Planning, Kristina Keneally, said the RFS would be consulted in the assessment of the application and its advice would be taken on board.

She said the development would not be approved if it did not satisfy the requirements of the RFS.

The application is currently on public exhibition until the end of the month and after that it will be assessed by the state’s independent Planning Assessment Commission.