Eruv decision closer

COMMUNITY consultation has been resumed by Ku-ring-gai Council to determine whether the St Ives eruv can go ahead.

The consultation is the last step required before council can hand down a decision, which is expected within three months.

The initial development applications to erect the 27 poles needed to complete the religious boundary was lodged with the local government on May 25 last year and the decision has bounced back and forth from council, to the Ku-ring-gai Planning Panel, which was shut down by the NSW Government before it made a decision, and then back to council.

When the eruv was first proposed, nearly 700 submissions were received. However, due to the disbanding of the panel, the process of approving the eruv changed midstream. This has led to a second round of community consultations.

A council spokesperson told The AJN the council now had all the documentation it needed from the northern eruv committee and that the proposal had been sent back to the residents.

“They [Northern Eruv Inc] intend to continue working with us and we now have all the information we need so we are currently notifying nearby residents and they have two weeks to comment,” the spokesperson said.

While the council continues to work on the application, Northern Eruv Inc has also lodged an appeal with the NSW Land and Environment Court.

After the application was lodged with council, no decision was handed down in the following 42 days and, by default, the decision was deemed a refusal. But that did not mean it had been officially rejected and therefore could still be considered by council in the future.

Northern Eruv Inc head David Guth stressed the appeal was not designed to bypass council.

“You will appreciate that it was necessary to take this further step to protect and preserve our rights, as the time for appealing against the deemed refusal will shortly expire,” he said in a letter to council. “We note that council retains its power to approve the applications.

“We look forward to continuing to work co-operatively with council in relation to the development applications and relation applications.”

The court can give council more time or it can elect to make a determination itself.

JOSHUA LEVI

A map of the proposed eruv boundary

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