Pub Test #7

That’s right folks, we have another pub test challenge… we’re back at the bar for number SEVEN 😲

Our previous post reached almost 11,000 of you - so we know this issue is hitting home - and hard.

Meet Belinda Moharich - Deputy Chair of the WA Planning Commi$$ion... (WAPC)

The PLANNING DISASTER - otherwise known as North $toneville SP34 is being considered by WAPC planners right now! The WAPC extended their deliberations to April 30 because the Structure Plan is apparently ‘complex in nature’. We knew that right…?

Anyway…..back to Belinda: Belinda’s legal firm provides legal advice to developers at the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT)…. So how does this work? The SAT website says:

“The Tribunal is the primary place for the review of decisions made by Government agencies, public officials and local governments. It also makes a wide variety of original decisions.”

...So… does Belinda help developers who have not been successful at the WAPC to then figure out how to have $ucce$$ at WAPC…? As Deputy Chair of the WAPC, Belinda would definitely know how it all works.

Is a “fair go” even possible at this point….? Is this REALLY how the “busine$$” of planning is carried out? Could there be so many conflicted members that the whole commi$$ion might need to abstain from making a decision?

What do you thINC?

Please tell us by commenting… Remember - all who need to hear this are listening! 😉

References:

https://www.sat.justice.wa.gov.au

https://moharichandmore.com.au

The letter The West refused to publish!

Save Perth Hills uses every avenue possible to inform people of the PLANNING DISASTER looming for our community if North $toneville gets the go-ahead.

But The West Australian slams the door in our face - constantly. You draw your own conclusions as to why.

This paper has, again, ignored an important letter to The Editor from Save Perth Hills asking Planning Minister Rita Saffioti to activate DISASTER PREPAREDNESS by calling an immediate halt to urban developments in fire prone areas, like ours, until they can be properly assessed against the lessons of this tragic fire season.

Importantly this letter acknowledges a significant anniversary for us: the January 12th 2014 Stoneville-Parkerville fires.

Today’s West dedicates pages to the Royal Family’s dramas - but our letter, on which lives may depend, was overlooked. As usual.

So here it is - for everyone for whom it matters - and that’s everyone who lives in fire prone communities, just like ours.

#AnthonydeCeglie (The West’s editor)

#MarkMcGowan

#RitaSaffioti

#MatthewHughes

#DavidCaddy

#NigelSatterley

#KayGoldsworthy

TO: The Editor, The West Australian Newspaper (for publication Saturday Jan 11)

RE: Community calls for a moratorium on development in fire prone regions – on the anniversary of the Stoneville-Parkerville Fires.

Dear Editor,

Six years ago tomorrow (January 12, 2014), fires destroyed 57 homes in Stoneville and Parkerville in Mundaring Shire – WA’s highest fire risk shire. Many in our community have not recovered.

While unprecedented fires burn across Australia, our Hills’ community is fighting plans by the Anglican Church to convert 555-hectares at North Stoneville into a ‘suburban townsite’ for more than 4,000 people - in the Extreme Fire Zone of the 2014 fires and on-site of the 2008 fire in which more property was lost.

4,000 panicked people cannot be evacuated safely – along with 2,000 existing locals, horse floats and trailers, on just two rural road exits. One road, at least, will be comprised by fire. Unlike NSW’s Batemans Bay, we don’t have a beach to shelter next door - we have the potentially volatile John Forrest National Park.

So, while the Prime Minister considers a Royal Commission into Australia’s summer of deadly fires, we call on Planning Minister Rita Saffioti to impose an immediate moratorium on urban development in proven bushfire-prone areas, like Stoneville, to avoid an Eastern States’ scale of disaster here.

Now is not the time to consider complex proposals like North Stoneville, in highly volatile environments, with major safety concerns, while fires burn and destroy communities just like ours, in environments just like ours, around the country.

There are significant lessons to learn from these tragic fires that require us to pause and re-assess, collectively, about how we might safely plan communities in fire-prone regions, given our ‘new norm’ of challenging – and deadly conditions.

Paige McNeil: Chairperson Save Perth Hills Inc.

What's Next?

Sooooo…. You all might be wondering, what’s next with “proposed” North $toneville AKA SP34….?

We have learned that the West Australian Planning Commi$$ion has announced they will be increasing the usual amount of time to consider the proposal by $atterley…. We understand that the time to deliberate on the proposal has been extended to the 30th April. The WAPC has cited the plan by $atterley as ‘complex’….

We ask, WHY?

Why the extension…? In fact, WHY even consider “complex” proposals like North Stoneville, in highly volatile environments, with MASSIVE fire safety concerns, while fires burn and destroy communities and environments, around the country? WHY?

SAVE the DATES:

As you all know, this planning DISASTER is not over. So please add these upcoming dates to your calendar.

📅 Monday 3rd February: THE annual electors meeting Shire of Mundaring. This is your chance to present a deputation to the elected members... with 2020 highlighting the threats of fire, there are just a few issues worth raising... https://www.mundaring.wa.gov.au/News/Pages/Annual%20Report%20and%20Annual%20Electors%27%20Meeting.aspx

📅 Saturday 8th February: Mundaring Twilight Market - Save Perth Hills will be there.

📅 Sunday 15th March (morning): TBA (you won’t want to miss this one)