Environmental Management Plan

Since 1997 the Baulkham Hills Council has been quietly working away on an "Environmental Management Plan". The intention is to produce a document which will become the foundation on which other plans, for example Local Environment Plans (LEPs), are based. With input coming almost exclusively from environmental advocates, this plan will further restrict landholders' choices if it is adopted.

There are 3 major criticisms of the proposed plan:

• Nearly everyone in the Shire is unaware of the existence of this draft plan. It has not been developed as a result of any call from the community that the council represents. The only support for such a plan comes from a very small group who believe they have the right to impose their values and vision for the future on everyone else.
• Underlying much of the detail in the draft plan is "The Precautionary Principle". Applied to environmental issues, this basically says; “If there is any possibility, no matter how remote or lacking in scientific evidence, that an action may have a harmful effect on the environment, then it should be prohibited until such time as it can be proven not harmful”.

It is not hard to imagine the sorts of rules and regulations that could be imposed in the name of this principle. Such a principle should never be considered unless there is a balancing provision against the loss of freedom that it will lead to.

• The plan does not recognise that the Shire actually forms part of a large world city, not a nature park. The fundamental purpose of a city is to provide for humans and human activity, not wildlife. A city needs plans that provide maximum opportunities for human activity, not plans that seek to restrict human activity and provide maximum opportunity for plants and animals.

The Environmental Management Plan was recently placed on exhibition by the council, with a call for submissions, and a report is due to come before the council at their meeting of 26 April 2005. Detailed criticism of the Environmental Management Plan is contained in the submission made by 5 Acres Now.

The community would be best served if this Plan was scrapped before more money is wasted on it. By attempting to impose minority values on everyone, it undermines property rights and democratic freedoms.

Update

• The plan was adopted with minor amendments at the council meeting of 19 July 2005