Taxpayers’ millions at risk over Killalea
By SARAH ALLELY
TAXPAYERS could be liable for millions of dollars in compensation if the Killalea State Park Trust reneges on its deal to lease land to private developers.
Trust deputy chairman Mark Luchetti yesterday said the trust could not withdraw from a contractual agreement with developers, and if it did the State Government administered body would be liable for “substantial damages”.
Mr Luchetti said community members were told at the trust’s monthly meeting on Wednesday night that any protests or objections to the lease should now be pursued with the NSW Government.
“We have done what we were encouraged to do by the Government. So the only effective way to communicate their objections would be to the Department of Planning, and possibly higher,” Mr Luchetti said.
NSW Lands Minister Tony Kelly earlier this year signed an agreement to lease three parcels of park land, for 52 years, to Killalea Coastal Investments, a joint venture between Mariner Financial and Babcock & Brown.
The agreement allows 202 residential lodges, swimming pools, tennis courts, restaurants and a conference centre.
The Mercury yesterday reported the developers were in the midst of preliminary heritage and environmental studies and were due to meet the State Planning Department in the next fortnight.
Meantime, a ground-swell of community opposition has risen against the proposal, with a near 10,000 signature petition tabled in Parliament.
Despite the “done deal” tag, community campaigners say the fight to stop the lease for a private resort should continue.
South Coast Labour Council representative Mark Paloff said trust chairman Ed Gilmore had told the group on Wednesday the trust could not legally escape from what was a good faith agreement, and would have to pay compensation.
Mr Gilmore told the Mercury he did not say this, but confirmed the members could not change their minds.
Yesterday, he said the agreements already signed meant that once the State Government or Shellharbour City Council issued development consent, the trust would have to hand over the 52 year lease.
“We have to act in good faith, the developers have already probably spent several million, and we have in fact received some payments from the developer,” he said.
Save Killalea Alliance spokeswoman Sonya McKay said the agreement stated that the trust was under contract to act in a certain way to progress the development.
However, Ms McKay said the community should still hold the trust to account and not lose faith in getting the deal overturned through Planning Minister Frank Sartor.
“We should have been consulted before the contract was signed, before any rights were given to the developer,” she said.
Minnamurra property owner and lawyer Susan Bunting said her understanding of the contract was that if the project did not go ahead, because the developers failed to get development consent, or there was a procedural defect in what the Government had done, then the trust did not have to return the down payments.
But, Ms Bunting said, the trust was locked in.
Illawarra Mercury - 24 August 2007
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