Stop the Selloff of Central Coast’s Green Spaces
The Community Environment Network is committed to protecting the green spaces of the NSW Central Coast local government area, particularly those green spaces that are owned by the Central Coast Council.
The Central Coast Council owns many thousands of hectares of public land including the Coastal Open Space System, important wetlands and other bush reserves. CEN takes the view that natural areas must be classified as a community land so they cannot be sold by council without proper community consultation.
We also think that C2 conservation land, the highest level of protection offered outside a national park, should be carefully managed and conserved by Central Coast Council, particularly if it is known to contain threatened species, ecologically endangered communities and Aboriginal cultural heritage.
Unfortunately, Central Coast Council does not necessarily share our position. Since October 2020, Central Coast Council has set about selling off public land and attempting to reclassify land from Community to Operational to make way for its sale.
CEN has played, and will continue to play, a major part in scrutinizing the sale of public land by Central Coast Council. We are fighting for the permanent protection of Porters Creek Wetland and for the expansion of the Coastal Open Space System (COSS).
We helped to build an alliance of over 20 community groups to stop the selloff of the last stand of native shade trees in the Woy Woy CBD, known as Austin Butler AC. That campaign stopped the selloff of that land to the neighbouring shopping centre to be turned into a car park.
We will continue to monitor Council’s property portfolio and, wherever possible, work to protect conservation land.
We’re also concerned about how this community’s public bushland is managed. We have completed a major project during council’s consultation on its plans of management for public land. We believe we stopped the management of at least 200 sites from being downgraded from bushland reserves to general use or park or playing field and we have more work to do.
Our position is that the council’s decision to have one general plan of management to cover all public land is not good enough. At the very least environmentally sensitive sites should have a dedicated and detailed plan of management to make sure the conservation value of the site is upheld.
Become a Friend of COSS - it's FREE!
Your support will expand our combined voices and enable the Friends of COSS to continue protecting and conserving the Coastal Open Space System.
We can work together and help ensure this invaluable resource for the community remains and grows.
