news, local-news, SCENIC HILLS, PRU GOWARD, JACQUI KIRKBY

Campbelltown Council last year rejected a Rookwood-sized cemetery proposal for our protected Scenic Hills. Now, the Baird government has rejected the council. In her last weeks as NSW planning minister, Pru Goward gave the green light for the controversial Catholic Cemeteries Trust plan to be reassessed. "I have selected the Sydney West Joint Regional Planning Panel (JRRP) as the alternative relevant planning authority on this matter," Ms Goward told the council in a letter sent before the March 28 state election, but made public only last week. This has infuriated some on the council, given the overwhelming rejection of the cemetery proposal last year. "Yet another case of a government interfering with our local decisions," said independent councillor Fred Borg. Jacqui Kirkby of the Scenic Hills Association is gearing up for another fight. "Now its been taken out of council's hands by the government on behalf of the developer — here we'll see how corroded the planning system has become under successive NSW governments," she said. "Campbelltown residents sent a message at the NSW election when they threw out [former Liberal MP] Bryan Doyle for supporting this cemetery. The Trust and its government supporters should take that as a warning. This will never be over. "Ignore the spin of the Catholic Cemeteries Trust's PR machine. Cemeteries are invasive and this is a massive one." The $30 million project would include two chapels and feature 136,000 plots across 113 hectares. The plans include parkland connected by walking tracks. Labor councillor Rudi Kolkman has said that was a red herring: "People aren't dying to go for a picnic in a cemetery — who wants their children kicking balls and running around over the top of graves?" Liberal Paul Hawker described the cemetery as "a bad, bad deal for Campbelltown", that would cost $60,000 a year in lost rates, and he feared sterilisation of the site would open a door to more coal seam gas mining. The site, owned by Cornish Investments, surrounds historic Varro Ville House, built by pioneer Robert Townson. Only two of the 15 councillors — Paul Lake and Clinton Mead — supported the Scenic Hills cemetery, but an appeal by the Catholic Cemeteries Trust in August 2014 resulted in the proposal being referred back to the NSW Planning Department. Rob Stokes — who last year rejected a heritage order on the proposed cemetery site — is the new planning minister.

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