How we broke the story Land sale creates doubt
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THE end result surrounding a block of land at Vincentia pleases community activist Chris Grounds but process did not.
Fears were raised this week that an environmentally sensitive 11. hectare of land near The Wool and Naval College Roads, Vincentia was going to be sold.
However, what many people did not release was the land had been withdrawn from sale on May 17 and moves to keep the land as part of a wildlife corridor had progressed.
Mr Grounds said the whole process showed to him that sections of government, at times, did not communicate well with each other and local communities.
The land is owned by TAFE and look like it was put on the market without the office of Environment and heritage being consulted
State Member for the South Coast Shelley Hancock, who had been liaising with the New South Wales Minister for the Environment, Gabrielle Upton to save the land agreed there looks like there was a breakdown in communication between the two sections of government.
However, she is also pleased with the end result and can't see any possible impediments from preventing the land from being saved.
“We can put this to bed for ever,” she said.
She said she they (TAFE NSW and the OEH) were in the contract exchange processes which would take about six weeks.
TAFE could not just give another state department the land.
“Things needed to be transparent,” she said
“The process needed to be above board and one department can’t gift land to to the other.”
The State Member said the land would now stay be part of an important wildlife corridor.
The land is a significant habitat corridor right through which is critical not only to Jervis Bay National Park but also to Booderee National Park.
Two Commonwealth threatened species, the leafless tongue orchid and the eastern bristlebird, can be found on the land.
The State Member said Shoalhaven City Council by informing the potential bidders on the contrast they land had also played a role in saving it
Mr Grounds hopes the government departments had learnt from the experience and there won’t a similar situation in the future.