A legal victory for residents
The Land and Environment Court overwhelmingly rejected a planning approval by the NSW Government to build a huge shooting range in the Southern Highlands in exchange for the support of the Shooters Party in the Legislative Council.
In Hill Top Residents Action Group v Minister for Planning, Justice Biscoe upheld the appeal by the Hill Top Residents Action Group Inc against the approval by the Minister for Planning of a Regional Shooting Complex at Hill Top declaring the Minister’s approval void.
The Hill Top Residents Action Group challenged the approval on the basis that the shooting range was prohibited under Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and the State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Projects) 2005. The Court found that the ‘range danger area’, essentially a designated buffer zone to capture stray bullets, was not permissible in the part of the site zoned as an environmental conservation area under the State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Projects) 2005.
Justice Biscoe further found that the “Major project approval for a regional shooting complex under s75J Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 was void”, and ordered the NSW Department of Sport and Recreation be restrained from doing anything further on the site pursuant to the project approval.”
The shooting range was estimated to cost $6 million of taxpayers’ money. The construction of the shooting range would carve out 1,000 hectares of land from the Bargo State Conservation Area adjacent to Hill Top.
According to the Hill Top Residents’ Action Group, the whole project is wrongly conceived and environmentally dangerous, and that the development will bring thousands of shooters to a peaceful rural area, disrupting school and community life, and will deposit tonnes of lead every year into Sydney’s water catchment area.
The size of the shooting complex is estimated as follows: Car parking is being built for 180 vehicles; the number of shooting points is expanding from seven to 224; the number of shooters is expanding from approximately 1000 a year to over 14,000 shooters a year; and in addition to the current 800m range, it will have five additional ranges – a 500m rifle range, a 50m pistol range, a combined 200m rifle and pistol range, a shotgun range, and an indoor air range.
In addition, the Court accepted the Hill Top Residents Action Group’s submission that the Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel was not properly constituted on the basis that the former National Party leader, Ian Armstrong, was not an ‘expert’. However, Justice Biscoe found that this did not lead to invalidity because consideration of the expert report was not mandatory.
The key test now is for the Premier not to overturn the Court’s decision. We have seen legislation introduced by the NSW Government which clearly overturns the decisions of the judiciary. This is seen in recent legislation such as the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Amendment Bill. Premier Rees should now abandon its plans to spend $6 million of taxpayers’ money to build a shooting complex.
Reference: Hill Top Residents Action Group Inc v Minister for Planning [2009], NSWLEC 185.
