Black Swan Lake fate fast-tracked after Gold Coast Mayor directed intervention
NEW documents reveal how the work to fill-in Bundall’s Black Swan Lake was fast-tracked by a powerful figure inside city hall.
Council
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MAYOR Tom Tate gave his chief-of-staff Wayne Moran a “watching brief” on Black Swan Lake which put pressure on the council’s planning department to fast track works to fill it in.
The Gold Coast Bulletin has seen a private email trail which, for the first time, explains the role of the city’s powerbrokers in the Coast’s biggest community brawl.
Residents yesterday reported trawling for fish had begun on the 2.7ha lake at Bundall, which council gave approval to the Gold Coast Turf Club to turn into an overflow car park and horse training area.
Last July, eight months after councillors voted to fill in the lake, Mr Moran wrote to the Mayor: “As you have asked, I have kept a watching brief on this Borrow Pit — GC Turf Club project.
THE TRUTH ABOUT BLACK SWAN LAKE
“I regret to inform you that the final green light to commence filling has still not be (sic) provided by Planning Officers despite the pre-start meeting, as required by the conditions of the op works approval, being conducted last Thursday.”
Mr Moran reminded Cr Tate that the turf club had spent more than $80,000 on preparations.
The Mayoral COS then took aim at planning officers, blaming them for the delay and recommending tough action.
“It is crystal clear to me that the governance, processes and policies underpinning the Planning Directorate are woefully outside the expectations of the community in general, the business community and are fundamentally damaging the economic wellbeing of this city,” he wrote.
BLACK SWAN LAKE: VULNERABLE JAPANESE SNIPE
Mr Moran told the Mayor that:
• The planning director should take personal control of the project, finish it “in the fasters (sic) possible way” and “no more delegation”.
• The CEO (Dale Dickson) should provide regular updates each Friday until the borrow pit is filled, which has not been happening.
• The final green light be issued by council immediately.
• An apology is signed off from “the highest levels of the council administration” to the turf club.
• The Local Government Association be engaged independently by the Office of the Mayor to investigate the Planning Department.
Mr Moran told the Mayor he was sure the council administration would give another excuse about it being “the customer’s fault” or blame State laws.
“It must be remembered as that as I type this email this morning, the customer (the turf club) cannot commence works due to council not providing permission,” he wrote.
About two hours after Mr Moran’s email before 9am, Cr Tate wrote to Mr Dickson asking him to read the instructions.
“Please advise urgently what is your proposed action. Prior to my directive being issued,” Cr Tate wrote.
Mr Dickson wrote back later that afternoon disputing that the turf club could not start works on the Bundall lake.
The CEO explained that dewatering works were required prior to earthworks and it was not certain that a traffic management plan was required.
“The advice from the relevant City officer sets the position out. This officer is highly regarded,” Mr Dickson wrote.
“The contractor is yet to even mobilise to commence the dewatering work, let along the earthworks. As the matter stands today, we are waiting for (the turf club’s consultants) Cardno to decide how it is best gong to project manage the earthworks.
“I am happy to provide a further update once we have further advice from Cardno.”
Documents seen by the Gold Coast Bulletin show Cardno as late as November — three months later — provided a fauna management program which still required some fine tuning by officers before approval.
Asked yesterday if he wished to explain his role after being given a “watching brief” on the lake, Mr Moran replied “no”.
Cr Tate declined to comment on whether the LGA had taken action and in a response only said “my office has a watching brief on any issue that is policy related”.
Mr Dickson yesterday again defended the work of council’s planning department.
“I am satisfied with my officers’ actions throughout this process and as such, of course no action was taken,” he said.
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