Land sale details 'hard to find', says organiser

Peninsula residents who want to find out if their local reserve, park or green space could be impacted by the Central Coast Council's Land Sale Strategy may have difficulty finding the relevant information on the council's website.

At one of the final meetings of the former Gosford Council, councillors agreed to publish information about the land sale strategy on its website.

Cr Hillary Morris called at the time for the information to be easily available with a link from the council's home page to ensure it was easy for residents to find.

However, Save Central Coast Reserves organiser Ms Sue Chidgey said the information was disappointingly difficult to find on the website.

It is currently on the former Gosford Council site under the "Community" category.

The promised link from the home page does not exist.

Although Gosford Council had been referring to the process as a "Land Sale Strategy" since September, the link to the relevant community information online is called "Land Strategy".

Ms Chidgey said she believed this was evidence that the new Central Coast Council did not want to make it easy for community members to find information about the reserves being considered for reclassification and sale.

According to the Land Strategy page on the website: "In 2015 council endorsed the potential sale of around 30 parcels of land that could deliver much needed funding to reinvest back into vial services, facilities and infrastructure for the community.

"This decision followed a review of council's property portfolio which identified a number of sites that: are no longer required for their initial use, are residual portions from previous works, are of no foreseeable, or limited use to council and the community, or have been replaced by larger nearby facilities.

"In recent years council has continued to acquire an average of approximately 28 hectares of new land annually for community and recreational purposes.

"Reflecting these continued acquisitions, a review of council's existing portfolio was in the interest of the community as a whole.

"An external consultant has been engaged to consider all aspects relevant to each parcel that's been identified for potential sale.

"Legislation requires council to undertake a fully informed and transparent review of all identified community land parcels, which will include public meetings where the community will have the opportunity to speak for or against any land reclassification.

"The community will be provided with 28 days' notice before each public meeting."

The page also includes links to affected properties by suburb, including Umina and Woy Woy.

Those links go to aerial photographs highlighting the location of the affected reserve.

Three reserves are listed in Umina: 40 Albion St; 42 Albion St; and 83 to 85 Brisbane Avenue.

The Woy Woy link includes properties at: 10 to 12 Jumbuck Close; 9 to 11 MacKenzie Ave; and 40 to 46 Pozieres Avenue.

Website, 8 Jun 2016

Central Coast Council/Gosford Council/Community/Land Strategy

Interview, 7 Jun 2016

Sue Chidgey, Save Central Coast Reserves

Reporter: Jackie Pearson