Petition update February 13th 2023

Much has happened since our last update.

It was announced in January that Maitland City Council has been granted $10 million dollars of NSW State Government funding to further develop its Stage 1 plans for the Walka Water Works Redevelopment. Council will work with Reflections Holiday Parks and Crown Lands (who own the site) to progress the plans to Development Application stage and will collectively contribute a further $5 .1 million dollars to the project. 

The grant money – only partially awarded, as Council applied for $20 million dollars – comes from the Regional Tourism Activation Fund (Round 2), which supports high impact tourism infrastructure projects to attract tourist visitation to “Destinations” around NSW. 

At the first Council meeting of 2023, on 24th of January, it was moved to accept the grant funding (1 Councillor voted against) – despite a groundswell of community concern and many of our elected Councillors not knowing what exactly they were voting for – and to “start the process” that will lead to a Development Application. This will include further discussions between Council, Reflections and Crown Lands; an Environmental Management Plan; and setting up a Community Reference Group to give a cross-section of community members an opportunity to provide input into the discussion. 

Our concerns about this high impact project remain. Since Council first announced “Big Plans” for Walka in October, it has been incredibly difficult for community and, indeed, many of our elected Councillors, to get clarity on what exactly “the plans” are for Walka.

We have very little reason to trust our Council on this issue.

·      Transparency

1.     The Walka funding and proposed partnership with Reflections was slipped in as a late Agenda item – 13th of September 2022 Council meeting – when the Council had been working on the details for some time. Therefore, the community was unaware that plans to redevelop Walka would be discussed. When this point was addressed in Public Access by a member of the community it was dismissed as “ridiculous” by Mayor Penfold – yet no reason for the lateness of the Agenda item was given. It wasn’t subsequently put up on the Council website, and when a Councillor questioned this, the response was that commercial-in-confidence matters were discussed. We reject this and believe that the top-line details should have been made available to the public. 

2.     In October, 4 community members met with Mayor Penfold, Rachel MacLucas (Executive Manager, Vibrant City - Maitland City Council), and Reflections, to seek a commitment from Council to address all of the community questions still unanswered on their Facebook page, and to request that the grant application and associated documents be made available to the community. While some online questions were addressed we are still awaiting responses to all, and despite follow ups from a community member – and an escalation to General Manager David Evans – the request for the Grant Application was ignored. 

·      Conduct of Councillors – A small handful of Councillors are showing lack of respect to our community and, alarmingly, only a superficial understanding of environmental impact. At the latest Council meeting several Councillors accused the community of spreading misinformation about the plans for Walka, of “NIMBYism” and of having had a “kneejerk” reaction. Certain Councillors have attempted to minimise the environmental importance of Walka by stating that “in the 80s” there weren’t many trees there and that it was “more barren back in those days than it is now” 

·      Communication – An ongoing lack of response by Council to valid community concerns via the MCC Facebook page and attempts to stop community from speaking freely on the issue. Vocal opposers have received threats to remove their voice from the MCC Facebook page with untrue baseless allegations and lack of evidence.  

·      Misleading Information – The Council has at times misled the community.  

1.     We have repeatedly heard from Council that we, the community, have been widely consulted regarding a caravan park at Walka.  This is untrue. The Destination Management Plan – which the Council claims served as their means of community consultation – is a recognised tool to brainstorm and capture community ideas and is not designed to delve deeper or seek considered feedback on one idea.

2.     We have been told that the park will not fully reopen for some time after the asbestos issue unless we accept the funding.  This is untrue, as Crown Lands are wholly responsible for remediating the site. We are trying to understand why this is taking so long.

3.     We have been told that the area highlighted on the Redevelopment Plan represents the area the community will lose access to, and that this represents 10% of the site or 6.4ha. This is untrue.6.4ha represents closer to 18% of the total land mass and an even greater portion of the ‘usable’ i.e., not densely vegetated land available. 

4.     Council initially responded to questions regarding reduced community access with ‘the community will have increased access’ They omitted that the accommodation area of 6.4ha in Stage 1, and further areas in Stage 2, will be unavailable to the community. 

5.     The Council presented the community with project concepts beyond the scope of the funding for the Stage 1 plan. This has misled the community into believing that the infrastructure presented in the Redevelopment Proposal, such as a water play area for children and education centre (which the community welcomes), would be included. These infrastructure items are part of a future concept which would require a separate future funding application and are in no way a part of this grant. 

For transparency, these are steps we have taken to seek clarity:

·      Getting nowhere with senior Council employees we made an official GIPA application –Government Information Public Access Act 2009 – and paid to formally apply to view the grant application on the 10th January, this is a public right as indicated in the application guidelines. We were due to receive this information 7th February.  On the 31st January we received notification that the release of this information had been delayed, and we were asked to pay for 16hrs of time for a Council employee to research and compile the documents. This information is now due to be released Friday 24th February.

·      This evening we launch a Facebook Group page, where we will be providing regular updates as they occur, Fact Checking Council communications and speaking with notable experts with something to say on the Redevelopment.

·      On 24th January, 2 community members spoke in Public Access at the Council meeting – a transcript of this meeting and separate document with Public Access speeches are available on the Save Walka Reserve Community Alliance Facebook Group. It is well worth reading and gives an insight into where Council members within your ward sit on this issue. 

So, what now?

It was clear from the Council meeting discussion that our community voice needs to continue to be LOUD and CLEAR on this project. If we don’t scrutinise, question, and SPEAK UP all along the way it’s clear it WILL go ahead.

We are buoyed by the announcement this evening that the Martins Creek Qaurry Expansion has not been approved by the NSW Independent Planning Commission.  This gives us a faith in the process and proves that the community voice is vital in fighting for what matters to us in our community.  

We have some great ideas about how to revitalise and preserve Walka, including attracting visitors to special events on site in keeping with its heritage. This can be achieved, but not by redeveloping the park as an accommodation hub with cabins and caravans for hundreds of overnight visitors, and the Pumphouse as a major commercial venue.  As one Councillor pointed out, Walka is “a low impact place, it’s a soft footprint passive place”. This is not the place for high impact tourism infrastructure.

Please continue to further support this by -

Joining our Facebook community group Save Walka Reserve Community Alliance.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/574612057865223

Contact Councillors in your ward.

Continue to share this petition. 

Please continue to be as informed as possible and spread the word.

Community action really works!