Lords Road back on the agenda?

Thursday 30 November 2017

Inner West Council Mayor Darcy Byrne has accused the State Government and the Greater Sydney Commission of subterfuge in its dealings with the Lords Road Planning Proposal.

The highly controversial proposal to rezone one of the last pieces of valuable industrial land in Leichhardt to allow for 315 apartments up to eight storeys high was refused by the State Government’s Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel (SCPP) in September.

At the time, the decision to refuse was considered a major win for the local community.

Council had been fighting the Planning Proposal since 2014.

Now, Council has discovered that the State Government has yet to sign off on the Planning Proposal refusal.

The Planning Proposal is still listed as being in the ‘Post Exhibition Stage’.

“This is extraordinary,” said Mayor Byrne. “Normally by now a decision would have been finalised.

“This Planning Proposal was rejected by Council and the people of the inner west. The State Government’s own processes have been followed and the proposal has been refused.

“There is absolutely no reason why the Department should not have officially signed off on this refusal by now,” said Mayor Byrne.

“Were the Government to abandon its own process, and allow this planning proposal to proceed through a backdoor method, that would be an outrageous and improper abuse of power.”