"The Minister for Planning the Hon Andrew Refshauge will have raised planning in NSW to new heights of diffusion and dishonesty if he accepts the proposed Merewether Street Wharf Hotel and Apartments without amendment" Parks and Playgrounds Movement Pres. Doug Lithgow said today.

The Minister refused an Inquiry to assess the current development proposal which flouts the objectives and the detailed provisions of his own lawful plan. We are outraged that the development doesn’t provide the public space at the foreshore promised in the gazetted plan.

The NSW Government took planning control for the ‘Building Better Cities’ Honeysuckle Development out of the hands of the Newcastle Council and prepared its own Regional Environmental Plan. (REP amendment No.3 Central Honeysuckle 10/12/97)

Mr Refshauge has Ministerial responsibility for the developer, the Honeysuckle Development Corporation, for Planning in NSW and is also the Consent Authority for Honeysuckle.

Parks and Playgrounds Movement wants the Minister make the development comply with the Planned Merewether Street openspace corridors and the plaza area opposite the former AA Company Offices at Argyle Street as shown in the REP No3, the Urban Design Plan and the Public Domain Concept Plan.

There is more openspace in the median strip at Honeysuckle Drive (the road through Honeysuckle) than is being provided at the harbour front at Merewether Street Wharf where it is needed. The Honeysuckle Dr. median strip is 8 metres wide whereas the proposed public harbour-side walkway in front of the planed Hotel is 6.5 metres wide.

Will the Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning Hon Dr. Andrew Refshauge MP enforce his own lawfully gazetted plan at Honeysuckle on Newcastle’s Harbour Foreshore ?

Can there be confidence in the Government’s planning processes if the Minister is prepared to accept a development from himself that contravenes his own Regional Plan without at least justification in an open Commission of Inquiry before he grants consent?