PORT Stephens Council held its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday 8 April.
Items on the agenda involved a number of policy reviews which have recently been completed by Council staff, though those regarding loans to community groups and the management of cemeteries were deferred for future meetings.
Advertise with News of The Area today.
It’s worth it for your business.
Message us.
Phone – (02) 4981 8882.
Email – media@newsofthearea.com.au
Cr Giacomo Arnott proposed the deferral, stating that there was a potential for significant impact on the community, and the opportunity for Councillors to engage in greater conversation prior to making any decisions would be in everybody’s best interests.
Several Integrated Planning and Reporting documents were due to be placed on public exhibition, but sparked a discussion over the wording of the Council resolution.
Cr Arnott expressed concern that members of the public understood that when Council “endorses” a document for public exhibition, they have all but adopted the document into policy without community consultation.
The decision was made to rephrase this and future resolutions to state that Council agrees to “place” documents on public exhibition.
A notice of motion from Cr Paul Le Mottee to reduce the Council meeting schedule to monthly was also deferred at the request of Cr Le Mottee to allow for more in depth consideration.
The ordinary meetings scheduled for 22 April and 27 May have been cancelled.
