Vote pro-business at election
THE developer behind Kings Forest and Cobaki Lakes has fronted a Tweed Chamber of Commerce breakfast this morning calling for members to vote for a "pro-business" council at the September election.
LEDA developments regional manager Reg van Rij said there was a "glimmer of hope" the first Cobaki and Kings Forest products would reach the market at the end of next year - more than 20 years after Tweed Shire Council and the state government first announced their support.
He said the delay proved the NSW planning system was "broken."
"It is a mess," Mr van Rij said.
"It can only be fixed by incisive, penetrative political action.
"It cannot be fixed by tinkering around the edges."
He said problems with the planning system were costing the economy and young home seekers "enormous amounts of money" and injecting risks into the development process that banks were no longer prepared to take.
"We have to have change," Mr Van Rij said.
"My message this morning is to encourage this chamber and its members to be active in those elections.
"Because it's only through being active ourselves that we can start to change the system."
He said the developments would together deliver about 10,000 allotments providing homes for 20,000 people over a 20-year period and creating thousands of jobs.
"Like many other projects they are, in our view, to be encouraged and we seek your support politically in the upcoming elections to ensure there is a council elected that is unmistakably pro-business," he said.
Tweed shire residents will head to the polls on September 8.
