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03:33
Mayor Pynsent
Address by invited speakers. First speaker Simone Spence, speaking against
Development Application EE60 in Report. Simone.
You have seven minutes Simone.
04:05
Simone Spence
Good evening Mr Mayor, Aldermen Councillors and assess ...
Councillors of Cessnock City Council. My name is Simone Spence and I have
been elected as spokesperson by the local community which is against the
proposed temporary music festival to be held at Cedars Mount View for what
is essentially a Rave party on our back doorsteps.
The 30 or more people I represent are primarily families who live .. whose lives for at least that weekend will be significantly impacted by the proposed event for the 23rd to the 25th of May, plus the additional proposed bump-in and bump-out days. To start with, the original residents that were approached and that were included in the DA as giving consent; five of the six of them have withdrawn their approval due to being deceived in the initial outline, numbers, timing and duration of the event.
I am addressing you this evening because of the concerns that we, the local residents and landowners are trying to main .. maintain the integrity of the area, the land, our livelihoods and our homes. Cedars Mount View themselves market their own property and the area and I quote their web site as "Hunter Valley luxury accommodation, ultra private. Cedars Mount View offers real luxury in absolute privacy and tranquility surround, in beautiful appointed Hunter Valley accommodation for couples." How, we ask, is a three-day festival for fifteen hundred people with music and other activities, going late into the night, suited to this area and its residents? It is in complete contradiction of their online statement. We the residents have also chosen this area for those exact reasons and we wish for it to stay quiet, peaceful and tranquil. The reasons for opposing this event, we believe as .. as it to be unsuited to the Mount View.
Security and safety for our families and property.
We are concerned as to the issues that may arise for large amounts of
alcohol being consumed as witnessed at many events around Australia. The
issues that arise from these events and we want assurances that the
patrons to this event will not be removed from the event and then left to
roam the mountain.
The significant effect to the privacy of our lives when fifteen people
come to party on our doorsteps.
Mount View has recently been recognised by the Tidy Council .. Council of
New South Wales and won the Flora and Fauna award. Many parts of this area
are designated wildlife corridors. Many animals, which include wombats,
echidnas, wallabies, kangaroos and many more would be put at risk, as they
are often passing through the area.
Other effects include the risk on the roads. As Council would be aware, Mount View and Mitchells roads are unsealed roads and many parts of these roads .. of this road only allow for one vehicle to pass at a time. How the .. how the event organisers and Council think it is acceptable to risk the lives of residents to reverse back up the mountain as happened when testing was carried out by Council, to make way for a truck to pass on what is mostly blind corners and further to this, to allow access to hundreds of vehicles to the mountain for the event this would increase the risk of accidents, as people will be coming into the area for the first time, having hundreds of vehicles coming and going throughout the weekend when residents already experience near-misses every week whilst going about our lives with tourists and joyriders coming into the area on unfamiliar roads. My husband and myself, on Monday night, helped a young driver recover his vehicle from its side, as he was travelling too fast around a very blind corner. He was lucky that another vehicle coming .. was not coming the other way and a major accident occur.
We also question the timing and duration of the daily festivities. As Council would be aware, other businesses in the area have done a lot of work to get their music events up and running and, to use an example of another local multi-day event, the CMC, does not even have music running as late as S.A.S.H sleepout requests and we ask how, when this event is to be held in more commercial setting and surround by like-minded businesses, could S.A.S.H be given the concessions, when it would be surrounded by .. solely by residential properties with young families, not to mention that this event is not in line with the current operation of business by Cedars.
We also have great concern for the event organisers level of experience, despite the Town Planner addressing this as not of normal planning consideration. We feel that Council must consider this issue, for such an event to be held in .. given approval in a quiet rural community. As the event organisers acknowledge, the current .. they currently hold DJ sessions at licenced venues in Sydney's CBD. They would not be required to carry out any logistical coordination or security, as this would be supplied by the venues.
I also refer to their Facebook page S.A.S.H. The description of their event is also of concern and I quote "The Sydney CBD sleepout on the weekend we have no neighbours, no restrictions and most of all, a crowd that is always up for it. Also, one of the establishments, as referred to on their Facebook page and also by Matt Weir and Kerry Wallace when asked where they hold their current events has been noted by the Sydney Morning Herald in May 2013, and I quote "The Ivy has been named New South Wales' most violent establishment". Being that they have noted already the existence .. the existing clientele that would be marketing .. they would be marketing their event to, we feel that this must be taken into consideration. Does Council and its residents really want to attract that kind of crowd into a quiet rural community? These are not only our local community concerns, but recognised by recent changes in legislations due to ongoing antisocial behaviour, caused by excessive drinking by our younger community.
We would also like assurances that this is a one-off event .. umm, if this one event does get approval, that it is not .. that it is only a one-off event, as Paved way themselves has told us in a meeting held in December, their intentions was to reduce the DA to one year, to .. for the event to gain approval and then they would be applying again for the remaining years, as per their original DA. This is made evident by their inclusions of their five-year waste management plan in their amended, and current, DA.
We as a community group are extremely concerned about this situation and the thousands of party-goers and alcohol and drug-fuelled environment can come into and disrupt our quiet rural community. Is suss .. is Cessnock Council ready for the possible worts-ra .. worst-case ramifications?
I thank you for your time and I urge you to consider the residents of Mount View.
10:46
Mayor Pynsent
Just take questions Simone, for a moment.
Simone Spence
Sure.
Mayor Pynsent
Any questions, Councillors?
Councillor Wrightson.
Councillor Wrightson
Thank you very much Mayor Pynsent. Um .. thank you for coming along to
address Council this evening. Um .. my question relates to um .. I've just
taken some notes as you've been speaking here and I, um something
that, that has just come to mind that may not be listed in my Council
papers is with reference to the unsealed roads and ah you made a comment
there that there was a truck or some kind of ..
Simone Spence
There was some ..
11:23
Councillor Wrightson
.. testing
Simone Spence
Yeah ..
Councillor Wrightson
.. where a vehicle had to reverse on the unsealed road. Can you just give
us some further detail on that <inaudible>
Simone Spence
One of the residents was going down the mountain and Council had organised
some testing of what was meant to be the largest possible truck that would
be supplying logistics for the event and this resident happened to be
going down the mountain at the time and got to meet with the truck um and
um for any of you that have been up there would know the area quite well
and she was made to .. because she couldn't pass the truck 'cause of the
width of the road, reversed back and most of that road is um twisty and
windy all the way up both, from all directions of the mountain and she had
to reverse to a point where she was able to actually, where there was a
section for her to pull over to allow the truck to pass um and on top of
that when we have the bump-in and bump-out days, if there are trucks
leaving the mountain and coming to the mountain when they've finished
dropping off their equipment, how two trucks are supposed to pass on that
road and, when they would not be able to pass in most spots, one of them's
going to have to give way and go back and how it would be suitable for a
truck to reverse back, to find a spot, like, how do we know that there's
not another car coming and the, the chance of an accident occurring um,
for the many I guess of the truck drivers wouldn't be locals and even, you
know, know the area. Even the garbage truck doesn't come all the way up
the mountain.
Councillor Wrightson
OK.
Mayor Pynsent
Let's thank Simone for her presentation.
Councillor Wrightson
Sorry, just, just one other question Mayor ah Mayor Pynsent, thank you.
Um, and being a local resident, Simone, um and and back to the unsealed
road, can you just describe to me what it's like for you as a local
resident when it rains, travelling on that road is there any difficulty,
does it change the road substantially?
Simone Spence
Yes, it does. We, I mean we drive to the conditions of the road on a
normal dry day, but when it is wet, the road becomes very slippery um and
even in sections where it is a straight section, you do need to be aware
of where you're diving um and drive extremely slow because, if you just
hit one little soft spot um from the road being washed away, then you do,
even driving at ten kilometers an hour, feel like um, you know, it's not
safe and there are many sections of the road where it's shrinking and
shrinking because it's just washing, washing away ..
13:42
Councillor Wrightson
Washing away. Alright yep, that's great. Thank you for answering my
questions. Thank you Mayor Pynsent.
Mayor Pynsent
Thank Simone in the usual way, thank you.
<applause>
Mayor Pynsent
Mister Garry Warnes is speaking for the proposal.
Seven minutes, Mister Warnes.
Garry Warnes
Thank you Councillor and Councillors um it's good to be back again. um
I'm obviously here to speak in favour of the proposal um and ah I think the first thing I'll need to put to the Council is the relationship to events in the Hunter Valley in tourism. um The Hunter region used to be the number .. the number two ah, like destination in New South Wales for tourism visitation, up until recently, with Sydney being the first, then it was the Hunter Valley, then it was the South Coast, well now you've been bumped out of ah second place down to third. um The South Coast now exceeds destination arrivals in the Hunter and I also understand that the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Associationis targeting the 25 to 35 year old demographic, which this event is aimed at, so it certainly opens up, opens up the opportunity for exposure of the Hunter Valley and the vineyards to this new demographic where I look around the table here and I notice Jeff's not here I was going to make a joke about our age, but um we're getting older, but the next generation's coming through, they have different tastes in music, they have different tastes in entertainment and I think that there needs to be ah an opportunity to embrace this, if people are going to look for tourism destinations within the Hunter Valley ah and ah make it a sought after place.
The DJs that are coming to this event are international and I understand that there, the event is going to be podcast by each of these DJs so that, not only is um the event going to be known in Australia, it's gonna be known worldwide, because it'll go to world wide audience, so um those are aspects of the positive sides of this development.
Now, as far as the residents who are objecting um I'm certainly advised that the majority; not all, but the majority of them aren't permanent residents of the site, they mostly live in Sydney or other places. This is their weekend ah or it's their businesses which they have staff looking after and that um I'm also told that um there's a particular gentleman who owns land adjoining this site where, over the last ah six years, they've had um three events, with up to three hundred people ah wellint .. with live bands well into the morning, two thirty am in the morning ah with alcohol. um Now I don't know whether these events were approved by Council, but it's not to say ah they are the wrong event, what it is to say is, if there was going to be a problem on this site with um people coming and going to events, we already have an exi.. existing example of at least three occasions where large events have happened, not as large as proposed, where there's been no accommodation offered on site, so the people who have gone there have enjoyed themselves at the event enjoyed the music, enjoyed the wine, have actually left the site and driven home. Now we don't know what sort of state they're in, but my understanding is there's no st.. crash statistics to indicate that there was any mayhem at that event.
In this case, the people will arrive for three days, they will arrive and they'll stay, they won't be coming and going ah and that um there will be police presence there on site, while the event's running um there will be St John's Ambulance, there will be the local bush fire brigade to assist with parking ahh and therefore, it will be a a very much a controlled environment, it won't be a free environment.
So what we're looking to do is to see that um this event could go ahead with er these people would come into this event are going to be looking at a picturesque part of the Hunter Valley ahh the Cedars is known for its tranquil setting and its native bushland around and the owners have always encouraged um the ah retention and improvement of the native bushland because that's what attracts their clients and these same people will be enjoying that um that sort of ah atmosphere.
um The problem they have had is they regularly get animals that are injured coming on to their property or um they are finding animals that have been shot on their property ah because people have a different um need for the use on other lands and ah apparently the um local wildlife pays the price. I heard the issue of wombats raised well, um my understanding is wombats have been shot out there for people considering that they were t.. eating the vineyards, they were eating the grass um that kangaroos were regularly shot, which is a sad reflection on what it is.
But if .. if we're going to share this area, what we need to do is make sure that it is controlled ah and that there are appropriate guidelines in place ah we expect that this is the case for this venue um the.. the promoters of the venue are making a point of hiring all local uh contractors to do the building work um to .. to hire the event equipment from they're using St John's Ambulance, they're paying the Rural Fire Service five dollars a car for their parking, so a lot of the money from this will go back into the community, that accommodation in the area will hopefully be booked out from those people who want to .. some of us don't like sleeping in tents, some of us like to sleep in a room with a pillow and a mattress ah and um the flow-on effects, we expect will be quite good for the um Hunter Valley and it will introduce a whole new demographic to the good things that are in the Hunter Valley ah and certainly, that's the intention of this party.
We've got to turn around and point out that it's not a rave party. We've also got to point out that the promoter um has a hundred and sixty parties a year that they organise and that, in that year, only two of those were at Ivy, so ah The Ivy is not an example of the worst-case scenario, in fact there was no suggestion that the parties that were held at The Ivy were the ones that were responsible for some adverse comments in the media. um Certainly, there is a heightened awareness of the .. of the local landowners as to this going on ah but, sometimes their fears build on themselves and the fears may not be real. um
As I said, there's no indication that there's been any significant crash statistics on this road. If the locals drive to the road conditions, one would expect people coming into the area of their own <indecipherable> would also drive to the conditions. I'm told that the .. the promoters intend to sign post the roadway in, to warn of upcoming bends ah and that um, when they were putting the semi-trailer up the road to test the viability of it, that the trucks that they are going to have in there are rigid pantecs, the semi-trailer was actually larger than any vehicle they propose, so they tested with a vehicle that was substantially larger than what they're proposing and that um, it may not come as a surprise that <laughs> the lady that was blocked and wouldn't move and caused a problem happens to be one of the protesters, so um it could well have been a staged event.
But nonetheless, Council's um staff are well experienced in these matters and if they're aware of the circumstances and they've put a recommendation to Council for approval, certainly um we would certainly recommend that that is the case and that you should support an approval for this event.
Thank you.
21:16
Mayor Pynsent
Questions, Councillors?
Councillor Wrightson.
Councillor Wrightson
Thank you very much Mayor Pynsent. Thank you very much for addressing
Council Mister Warnes. um My question relates to um again um a road ..
road related question um you mentioned that there was a previous party or
event, three hundred people um you mentioned that those, the people
leaving that particular event drove home, were any of those people driving
trucks?
Garry Warnes
No ..
Councillor Wrightson
um
Garry Warnes
.. I'm, I'm only advised of them. I wasn't personally aware of them. I'm
told that over the last six years there've been three events, so roughly
it's one event every two years with three hundred people in cars and/or
motorcycles ah but, however that um there's .. there's no accommodation
for them that, when they leave, they were leaving and we don't know what
state they were leaving in ..
Councillor Wrightson
um
Garry Warnes
.. but that's not to st .. say that they weren't responsible. What it
reflects on, there was no significant accidents, no significant concerns
and ah what we're saying is that can potentially does give an indication
how people do respect roads they don't know.
Councillor Wrightson
m So you were .. you were actually aware of the um the instance where the
test semi-trailer truck had to reverse to ..
Garry Warnes
Yes
Councillor Wrightson
.. allow another vehicle to pass. So you do agree with that? That is
something that ..
Garry Warnes
Yes the ..
Councillor Wrightson
.. did occur?
Garry Warnes
.. the traffic ah management report, which was provided to Council
um actually talked about the incident actually <laughs> in the
report. There was a photo of the truck and the white car and it showed er
that the confrontation and um ah it certainly made the point that ah the
roads are narrow and that there was a need for courtesy on the road ah and
then the person backed up, the truck could easily pass and it's a truck
that is significantly larger than the largest truck that would be provided
on the site.
22:59
Councillor Wrightson
And c-can you also um give me some further information on bus movements
or, so, so we're talking about semi-trailer trucks um you've just
mentioned that it would be a flat table-top type truck, which I'm assuming
is .. is not as long as a semi-trailer. When we're comparing that to a
bus, which might be transporting .. is it, is it proposed to use buses to
get, get um concert-goers to the event site?
Garry Warnes
I, I don't know um I if I can just get a nod.
Councillor Wrightson
No, no buses.
Garry Warnes
No.
Councillor Wrightson
OK. So they were consulted, but it's not proposed to use buses?
Garry Warnes
Obviously I'm told no.
Councillor Wrightson
Alright. So and and the the final traffic management plan, I'm just
wondering now whether ah that particular information would be provided in
the final traffic management plan, which is yet to come to Council so if,
if traffic arrangements were changed and if we decided that it might be
better to use a bus, then could that be something that, after, if, for
example consent was issued tonight by the Council, could the promoters of
the event or the applicant decide to use buses?
Garry Warnes
Certainly,they could. um The test using an articulated semi-trailer is
significantly larger than a bus, so it does certainly demonstrate that ah
that vehicle is capable of accommodating the curves. erm There certainly
is again the need, as we have, for courtesy on the road. On some of the
tighter bends er the same thing would apply to buses, but at this stage
there certainly is no proposal to bus people in erm they'll arrive by
their own er private vehicles. I, I actually was .. I think that that
traffic report is already with Council, it's already lodged with them.
Councillor Wrightson
OK, that might be something that I can follow up later on. Just one final
question ..
24:46
Mayor Pynsent
No, no Councillor Wrightson. You've had three.
Councillor Wrightson
OK, thank you.
Mayor Pynsent
Councillor Gibson.
Councillor Gibson
Thanks Mayor Pynsent. um
My question, Garry, if I may, you talked about um the economic ah stimulus of obviously this demographic um obviously, coming to the Valley, which is interesting. Obviously, it's an event ideally where y.. the, the, not necessarily pigeon-holed to, but most of the ah party-goers, for the want of a better term are going to the site, they're camping on site or, or accommodating somewhere nearby, but essentially i i it's a, it's a closed gig i in the sense that they're already there. So there's probably little chance, and I don't want to speculate, but would there be, to talk about the economic benefit a are they likely to go on winery tours? Are they likely to go cheese, cheese-tasting, olive, olive tasting or or to the Hunter Valley Gardens, for example, which is one of the greatest ah ..
Mayor Pynsent
Can we have the question?
Councillor Gibson
So, well, that's the ec.. that's the, that's the question I've got,
y'know, how .. the point you make about the economic stimulus. How, how
can that be justified other than just a blanket statement?
25:45
Garry Warnes
Well it's .. in, in relation to the fact that of using local firms to
provide all of the infrastructure. Of using locals for the logistics of
the crowd control ah unh certainly is direct benefit. Again the
accommodation nearby. um The we, we were actually looking at the fact that
the majority of people would be expected to camp on the site. Others, as
I've said, that require a little bit more comfort may take up the
opportunity for um ah staying ah at motels. ah One would not rule out the
fact that their partners well they may decide well um there's something on
today that, maybe we're not interested in and yeah, we'll go for a look
around the vineyards, we'll go around to um Hunter Valley Gardens. We may
even <indecipherable> some people that are fairly keen golfers. They
might decide to bring their sticks and go for a hit you ..
Councillor Gibson
Don't, don't break a window at my place.
Garry Warnes
.. Yeah, we- we're not talking about seventeen, eighteen year olds. This
demographic that is being targeted is the 25 to 35 year old young
professionals ah have reasonable incomes, they like to spend their money.
There is every chance that they would look for, at the very least, they'll
be introduced to the Hunter Valley and they'll say "This is great, maybe
we'll come back here. It's not too far, it's only a few hours from
Sydney." So the opportunity is there and the added opportunity is that,
being podcast across the world is that um there may well be that
fut-future um venues that people may turn around and say well
look, that looked great, let's go to the Hunter Valley and ah enjoy
this um venue.
27:06
Mayor Pynsent
OK, we've got another couple of questions. Councillor Campbell.
Councillor Campbell
Ah yes. Thank you Mister Mayor. uh
Mister Warnes, on the issue of um e, I don't know how familiar you are with Council's Code of Meeting Practice um but the standard procedure when we've had speakers is that this would be deferred. um For two weeks. ah What would be the consequences of a deferral for the applicant?
Garry Warnes
Ah it I was o actually going to take the opportunity if I could of to
raise that. um Even if Council were to approve this matter tonight, um we
have a problem in that we having read the the business paper report, there
is one condition that requires the applicants to notify the Liquor and
Licensing Board ninety days ahead of the event. um We, even if you approve
that tonight, we couldn't meet that requirement, so ah in lieu of that, we
were certainly going to put it to you, and I'm putting it to you now, that
um we would seek the opportunity to move the event to the dates of the
19th, 20th and the 21st of September. That would allow us to meet those
requirements.
Councillor Campbell
Sorry, whe- when did you become aware that you weren't in line to meet
those requirements?
28:10
Garry Warnes
Ah because w I I'm aware of Council's Meeting Practise that, if the matter
is spoken on tonight, normally Council would defer it to the following
meeting, before a decision will be made er so, er when I do the
count-back, we just kinda picked those dates.
Councillor Campbell
Sure
Garry Warnes
Yeh
Councillor Campbell
Thank you.
Mayor Pynsent
Councillor Troy.
Councillor Troy
Oh yeah, thanks Mayor Pynsent. I um put my light on, I think before one of
the questions wa- was answered before, but I just wonder if we can get
some clarification, because I'm not sure that everybody got it. That
traffic management plan, for clarification, w-ha is already with Council.
We're not waiting on any documents?
Mayor Pynsent
Yes, sure.
Director?
Director
Thank you Mayor. Uh Councillor Troy, that er Traffic Management Plan was
submitted with the application. It went through the Local Development
Committee. It is with Council's files and is considered in the assessment.
Councillor Troy
OK, great. Ah
Mayor Pynsent
Council it's- You got a question?
Councillor Troy
Oh, no. There's a lot more that I'd like to say on it, but i- it'll come
a- at a later point.
Mayor Pynsent
Then let's thank um Mister Warnes for his presentation.
<applause>
Garry Warnes
Thank you.
Mayor Pynsent
Councillors, they are questions, not a debate.
29:18
<break of 11 minutes and 12 seconds for other business>
40:30
Mayor Pynsent
Move to EE60.
Councillor Stapleford.
Councillor Stapleford
Mayor Pynsent, I would like to move that um that we .. <discussion
off> Mayor Pynsent.
Unknown
Sorry <laughs>
Councillor Stapleford
I'd like that we deal with this tonight and we don't defer it. um There's
a lot of people that need ..
Unknown
I second that
Councillor Stapleford
.. c- certainty, so I move that we deal with it tonight.
Mayor Pynsent
Do you second ..?
To deal with it tonight, it needs um two thirds of the er Councillors to be here. We have it seconded by Councillor Hawkins that it be dealt with tonight. Those in favour; Councillors Wrightson, Olsen, Stapleford, Hawkins, Smith and Parsons. Those against; Councillors Gibson, Troy, Doherty, Campbell and Pynsent. That means that it's defeated. So that it's not dealt with tonight, so it's deferred to the next meeting.
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