The State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA) oversee a whole-of-government approach to the state's assessment of development applications.

For this particular development application (DA), Department of Transport and Main Roads was the only state government agency identified as a referral agency by council. We don't understand why Education and Health weren't as well - given the proximity to a school and the nature of the development.

The DA is currently with SARA for assessment of the third version of the developer's traffic impact assessment report. This report, like the previous two, is deeply flawed and based on inaccurate modelling and data and misinformation.

Once again, a few dedicated members of our community that have the relevant expertise are documenting the errors and inaccuracies in this report and will once again provide council, MPs and SARA with their comprehensive submission that highlights how inappropriate and unacceptable this DA is for that site.

Without these few people tirelessly working on revealing these issues and presenting the evidence on the health and safety impacts, the supposed 'expert' reports produced by consultants that the developer hires would quite likely simply be accepted by council. Undoubtedly, council does not have the resourcing to peer review every consultant's report that it receives as part of a DA. So, thank goodness we have a few people within our community willing to volunteer hundreds of hours over the last year to keep these people accountable.

SARA will make its decision on Friday 8 March and advise council. Council will then continue their assessment of the DA.

Thank you to Andrew Powell MP for advocating our case in parliament last Wednesday, also. https://www.facebook.com/AndrewPowellMP/videos/363114717749916/

We can only hope that SARA takes on board the immense evidence of how and why this DA is unacceptable, and the health and safety risks it poses to the school students and staff, as well as the broader community and visitors.