Gold Coast Councillor blasts anti-quarry residents as “vindictive”

A Gold Coast City councillor has blasted opponents, revealing a painful personal campaign against him that was personal, vindictive and not factual as he fought to stop a lontime quarry.

A GOLD Coast City councillor has blasted opponents, revealing a painful personal campaign against him that was “vindictive and not factual” as he fought to stop the Oxenford quarry.

Helensvale-based city councillor William Owen-Jones, in a private email to residents, has opened up on the lead-up to a majority of councillors supporting him and rejecting a 100-year expansion of the Nucrush operation.

Photograph taken by residents of a blast at the Oxenford quarry on the Gold Coast.

Council late last week agreed to a two-year extension to the quarry operation in its current footprint as it fights an appeal in the planning and environment court in the city’s biggest environmental battle.

“I have done my utmost to achieve the best possible result for the people who’ve placed their trust in me,” Cr Owen-Jones told residents.

He explained councillors worked within a legal framework requiring them to have “an open and persuadable mind” when considering all applications. It created challenges for him facing questions at public meetings and on Facebook.

Cr Owen-Jones outlined how it was not possible, under strict conduct guidelines for councillors, for him to form an opinion prior to the presentation of all information.

Councillor William Owen-Jones. Picture: Jerad Williams.

“The social media campaign against the quarry – and against council, and against myself – has been pretty disappointing. It has, at times, been personal and vindictive and at times, not factual,” he said.

“There have been several false allegations to the Office of the Independent Assessor – all dismissed – and detrimental comments about my family, my integrity and my character.

“Making the right decision is more important to me than a popularity contest and I will continue to do the right thing by the broader community that I am elected to represent.”

Cr Owen-Jones said he realised the short-term extension of the operations was not a popular decision but it was unrealistic to think the quarry could be closed “tomorrow”.

Update aerial shot of Oxenford quarry on the Gold Coast in 2021.

His role was to inform the community of the submission and “to not form an opinion”.

He had personally letterbox dropped 800 houses during the public submission period encouraging properly made submissions.

“And those 40-plus properly made submissions against the quarry were critical to the eventual decision,” he said.

“Overturning an officer recommendation for approval is never an easy task. To lobby other councillors may also have been viewed as my trying to influence a desired outcome and that too may have seen me removed from being part of the decision,” he said.

Oxenford quarry to stage nine development - the quarry plant moves to the north, closer to residential homes.

Cr Owen-Jones’ arguments on the floor of council led to councillors stopping the quarry, voting against the officer’s recommendation of approval.

He was also restricted by not discussing what occurred in closed session at council.

“It’s incredibly disappointing to read online that I am making corrupt decisions, that I have some type of tricky scheme worked out, that I am not to be trusted,” Cr Owen-Jones wrote.

“That could not be any further from the truth, because I have never worked harder to set the scene for the correct decision, whilst complying with legislation and the Code of Conduct for councillors.’

Residents in a response told him they “strongly disagree with any vindictive and untruthful attacks”, and now admitted to not understanding the process. Environmental leader Sally Spain had commented that his representation was “fabulous”.

Cr Owen-Jones said “the main game” was always refusal of the application, because the buffers were too short, less than 200m from homes.

Protest on the Oxenford quarry outside the Gold Coast City Council chambers.

If the city did not agree to the two-year operating extension for the quarry, a hearing would occur in the Supreme Court and council would lose, he said.

The appeal process and refusal was the only solution because the quarry site was zoned for extractive industry and the State Government had the site as a key resource area.

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