You are here: Home / Media / Victory for sustainable development?

Victory for sustainable development?

Win or lose in the Land and Environment Court, Darlinghurst resident Matthew Drake-Brockman may have already won – on behalf of the public – against global beverages firm Foster’s Group and the State Minister for Planning Frank Sartor writes Samantha Van in the South Sydney Herald of August 2007.

On 11 July, an event was held to raise funds “for a sustainable Carlton and United Breweries development (in Chippendale),” City of Sydney Deputy Lord Mayor and Greens Councillor Chris Harris said. The Chippendale community raised over $1,000 for Mr Drake-Brockman’s litigation against Foster’s and Mr Sartor.

At the fundraiser, Chippendale resident and sustainability consultant Michael Mobbs said: “In a sense, we’ve won by putting this on the agenda. Even if we lose the court case, we’ve won. We’ve put this on the agenda in a way that makes the Minister uncomfortable.”

Mr Mobbs has helped Mr Drake-Brockman, in addition to others, including Cr Harris, whose offce organised the fundraiser.

Another speaker, Cate Faehrmann, the Nature Conservation Council of NSW’s Director, congratulated Mr Drake-Brockman “for his initiative in bringing deserved attention onto the State Government’s calling in of the development for the CUB site.

“Tonight is about yet another unsustainable development that Sydney can’t afford to have,” Ms Faehrmann said. “It’s about the fact this current State Labor Government doesn’t get that we must, we absolutely must, plan our buildings and cities sustainably, if we are to have any hope of ensuring an adequate clean water supply and a safe climate for future generations.”

Jack Mundey, Green Bans legend, said that in his experience since the 1970s, “extra-parliamentary action by concerned residents, environmentalists and community activists is essential if overdevelopment is to be thwarted.”

Mr Mundey said that he believed the court case (which took place on 25 and 26 July) could spark that action.

An audience member, who said she represented six people unable to attend, said that she thought the CUB site “was lost until I found the letter-box drop” (about the fundraiser by community group FoCUS, Friends of Carlton United Site). “It’s given us heart.”

Source: South Sydney Herald July 2007 http://www.southsydneyherald.com.au/