Dubbo Regional councillor Josh Black's concerns around land use for Regand Park

Councillor Josh Black has once again called for transparency, good governance and better processes after it was revealed that a letter of support and a letter of authority were sent from Dubbo Regional Council to St John's Junior Rugby League Club as part of their grant application to build sporting fields at Regand Park.

DRC's chief executive officer provided a report to the October ordinary meeting advising council's letter of support did not give consent to the St John's Rugby League Football Club proposal to be developed at Regand Park or any other site or location.

According to the report the letter of support was "clear" in welcoming the proposal for Regand Park contingent upon further approvals of designs.

"It is important to also understand that whilst there has been public commentary around the scale of the vision of St Johns Junior Rugby League Football Club (St Johns JRLFC) including associated buildings, the awarded grant of $1 million would only be for a small portion of the discussed works," the report stated.

"If the works were largely playing field or car park based civil works then this would not require formal development approval under a DA process."

Cr Black said the report made it clear the letter wasn't giving land use consent.

But according to the state grant criteria, land use consent was provided and council's letter was used for that.

"I think there is a big opportunity here for council to change their processes, that letters that are provided that aren't letters of consent for land use actually state that," he said.

It has been revealed that two letters were written for St Johns JRLFC this year for a Federal grant proposal.

Neither of those letters gave land use consent.

A letter produced on February 7 by the CEO gave councils support, but a letter of authority was also supplied a few days later.

The letter of authority states that "this letter confirms I'm the CEO of Dubbo Regional Council, owner of community land reserve for sport recreation and nominated by St John's JRLC in their Building Better Regions round six grant application as a principle officer of the organisation that is the site owner/manager. I provide permission for the project to be undertaken on the community land reserved for sport and recreation."

The Australian Government decided not to proceed with the BBRF program, including round six applications.

Cr Black said this has created some governance and integrity issues for council.

"How are these letters of support or basically letters of authority and permission provided to the organisations that request them?" he said.

"Can we do our processes better? As a council I think we can, this is something I would explore at a later date."

Cr Black said that when writing the letters of support they have to tighten up on whether they were letters of support or not.

"Council is unwittingly misleading some grant authorities because the next time council or a community group applies for a grant, people will ask if this can be trusted," he said.

CEO Murray Wood said council never provided support for St John's RLFC to build the football fields at "any other site or location" and the letter of support was for in direct reference to Regand Park.

Approvals required for sportsground development depends on the nature of the project and on what land it would be undertaken.

The example the report gave was if an existing sportsground was proposed to have a playing surface upgraded to a sand based profile with associated irrigation improvements as well as sports lighting to increase training capacity that would typically be an operational decision determined under the Management Policy 'Ground Allocations.

This is because there is no change required in a council policy.

The report stated that because Regand Park is operational land, community use of it as a sportsground would need a series of formal resolutions and public hearings in accordance with the Local Government Act.

None of these steps have been undertaken to date.

Council resolved in January and February 2022 to develop a northern and southern Macquarie River Master Plan.

This resolution overrides the previous resolution of 2021 welcoming the St Johns JRLFC proposal.

This later resolution of council recognises that there is no strategic direction set for Regand Park and there is a requirement for the master planning process to be completed before further consideration by council on the community usage of Regand Park in the Macquarie River Corridor.

St Johns JRLFC have been advised of the timing requiring to complete the Master Planning and that there is no certainty that council would adopt a Master Plan that included sporting fields in Regand Park.

Mr Wood made it clear in his report that council have not formally endorsed any site drawings, technical plans, relevant supporting documentation and approvals from St John's JRLFC.

Council in the previous term did receive plans from St Johns which went to the mayor and former CEOs email accounts in July 2021.

They had allegedly not been provided to the current councillors until August 31, 2022 when the current CEO emailed all councillors, apologising for not providing this information earlier as this older correspondence had not been recalled in discussions around master planning with the new council.

"The plans have not been endorsed by either the elected body of council nor staff within the organisation," the report stated.

The detail has been used by staff to understand the request of St Johns JRLFC in terms of spatial allocation.

The draft Macquarie River Precinct Masterplan will be presented to council for endorsement for 28 days of public exhibition, at the December 2022 meeting.

Public Exhibition will be recommended to go beyond the minimum 28 day due to the Christmas period, with the public exhibition period closing in early February 2023.

The final Macquarie River Precinct Master Plan will be adopted by council in February 2023.

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