Team Relocate calls it quits following NSW election
The team has decided to finish its campaign to move the Tweed Valley Hospital from Cudgen.
Tweed Heads
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TEAM Relocate has called it quits following a year-long campaign to have the $534 million Tweed Valley Hospital moved from State Significant Farmland at Cudgen.
During a meeting at the Cudgen Leagues Club on Sunday, Relocate leader Hayley Paddon said the election win by Tweed MP Geoff Provest meant the fight to save the Cudgen site from development "tragically will be lost".
But Ms Paddon said there would be an ongoing war to save the Cudgen Plateau's remaining State Significant Farmland from urban development.
"We accept Relocate's role is finished. We have exhausted all possible actions to save this piece of land," she said.
"We retain our unwavering support for better hospital services on the Tweed, but it is a pity that the painful consequences of MP Geoff Provest's flawed hospital site choice will only become obvious to the community once the project is well underway," Ms Paddon said.
"I encourage the community to remain vigilant and not be intimidated by bullies insisting opposing opinions are now not to be spoken in public. It is still our democratic right and responsibility to speak up to protect all Tweed farmlands, and our quality of life here in the villages."
Ms Paddon urged local residents to hold Mr Provest to account over his promise the land surrounding the hospital site would not be rezoned.
In her final speech, Ms Paddon thanked everyone who gave their time to the Relocate campaign.
"Over the past year the Relocate team has worked together tirelessly to challenge the lack of prior consultation, the unsubstantiated claims of 'chosen by experts', the contempt for Tweed Council's opinion, and the arbitrary over-ruling of the community's two hard-won principles of protecting State Significant farmland and keeping a three storey limit in coastal villages," she said.
Ms Paddon said the group had received vilification in the community during its campaign and there was "an urgent need to bring about peace and healing for supporters".
"It is now obvious there is no remaining prospect of overturning the massive corporate forces ranged against our volunteer local organisation," she said.
"Rather than pointlessly expose them to any further abuse, we have commenced the formal winding up of our Relocate Association."
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