Council defers decision on new Land Disposal Policy

A DECISION on a new policy which deals with the selling of Council-owned land was deferred by Nambucca Valley councillors at Council’s 16 April meeting.

According to Kristian Enevoldson, Manager of Risk and Governance, Nambucca Valley Council does not have a current policy to guide the disposal of land it owns.

A recently-produced draft policy, which was presented to councillors to approve subsequent to a 28 day public exhibition period, prompted a fifteen-minute discussion between five of the councillors present.

Councillor Jane Smith said she had concerns the new policy largely leaves councillors out of the process of selling or leasing land by private treaty.

“We only really hear about it when a deal has been formulated,” she said.

“Auditing this policy against other councils of the same size, there are a lot more protection measures and a lot more public consultation.”

Cr Smith prepared a list of amendments to the policy she believes would provide more transparency to councillors and opportunities for public consultation before private treaties can be brought to Council for the final vote.

Cr James Angel highlighted concerns that mistakes made by the Council in the past could be repeated without scrutiny of the process the Council uses to sell land it owns.

“We can’t sell or purchase property without a specific resolution of council, so you do have the safeguard of all sales and purchases coming to Council for resolution,” Council’s Manager of Risk and Governance assured the councillors.

Cr Smith responded by saying councillors wanted to be more involved in the overall sale process, including deciding whether certain land should be sold.

Councillors resolved to defer the matter until a report into whether Council’s policies on leasing land and disposing of land should be combined and a workshop to inform councillors of the details of the policy could be held.

Councillor David Jones supported the deferment and the policy debate.

“I see this as a fantastic debate, because what Council is doing here is something they have never done in the past and that is ‘drill into policies with rigour’,” he said.

“I’m going to support that we have more rigour, that we have a workshop and I hope this sets a new standard where, when we get policies coming before us, we have a workshop in the months before,” Cr Jones said.

By Ned COWIE