Councils will keep accepting all submissions right until the date that they make their decision. Especially if you raise important issues and points.
Thank you to those who have signed the petitions, submitted individual submissions and have helped in so many ways in terms of signage and gathering signatures for petitions
There have been approximately 1,300 submissions and petitions that have been handed in to council. This is a huge effort considering that residents in the area are far apart with farms separating everyone. Farmers are also very busy working hard, last thing farmers and local residents need is a problem such as cemeteries, crematoria and the potential threat of pollution in the soil, waterways and in the air. Residents are being subjected to an onslaught of proposals which require submission writing, fact gathering and create a general disruption to their everyday lifestyle.
Bullying, threats, trespassing and thefts towards Luddenham Cemetery & Crematorium Objectors
Some residents in Luddenham have been threatened because of their opposition to the developers DA (Development Application). Just as we should respect that developers have a right to lodge their DA with council, the developers should respect residents' rights to oppose their DA. Who is responsible for the thefts of protest signs and the threats and bullying? Whatever is happening, it's bullying and unacceptable. Police have been notified of the matter.
So who are the developers?
Combeda Pty Ltd (a property development company), possibly also related to Combeda Constructions Pty Ltd has requested Luddenham Property Group to handle this matter for them, Luddenham Property Group has employed ADC Lucas Consultants and the representative figure Paul Bernasconi to represent them in this matter. Search results for all of the parties involved yields minimal information. So if that didn't confuse you, we'll line them up for you:
1) Combeda Pty Ltd (the applicant, a property developer)
2) Combeda Construction Company (related company? a shelf company?)
3) Luddenham Property Group (some type of shelf company?)
4) A.D.C Lucas (manager Paul Berlusconi)
Research shows that Comeda Pty Ltd has made several thousands of dollars towards the Liberal Party in recent years. And if they're the ones that sold a shopping centre in Gosford, then they've got a lot of money and the battle for Luddenham residents could be a long battle. Most companies inundate the web with their presence so that they can get more business from people googling. Because search results yielded minimal information, we can roughly surmise that their intention is not to be found.
The battle for Greendale residents is similarly just as difficult, because they are going up in opposition against wealthy doctors and wealthy developers, in the business of maximising their profits regardless of how aggrieved the local residents are.
On the topic of cemeteries, Sydney's GMA (Greater Metropolitan Area) is in need of cemeteries in the future around the year 2050 according to the Government Paper. However, this doesn't mean that private cemetary/crematorium operators be approved to develop across Australia's beautiful farm lands in a haphazard manner, around every corner.
New York and Melbourne (Aust.) for example, has been beautifully planned because someone had long-term vision and planned for this vision. If developers can develop cemeteries around every corner and random sections, we could end up with hazardous health issues, dangerous traffic load on our country roads that cannot sustain the level of visitors to the cemeteries/chapels and crematoriums. Contaminated soils, dams, water tanks and air pollution (particulate particles and fumes from the crematorium).
Will this be the end of our beautiful rural areas? Random cemeteries and crematoria every 5 kilometres or so? Because private interests are trying to get their random piece of land approved for random cemeteries and crematoria? These developments are motivated by self interest and are not the result of a credible planning process.
So where are the current DAs on Cemeteries and Crematoria located?
Due to lack of information on the web consolidating all this information, we thought we would help anyone who's interested in giving them a simple summary. This clearly shows how adhoc this whole thing is. Will our future generation criticise our current council and Government for allowing adhoc planning to ruin our rural countryside, farmlands and mountains? Will there be future problems resulting from contamination as a result of these developments because they will be surrounded by poultry, cattle, fruit and vegetable farms?
These DA sites do not have reticulated water nor sewerage. This means that they are using tank water and onsite sewerage. The diseases and health issues that may arise is an important issue that is overlooked. Also, the lack of public transport and lack of infrastructure is problemmatical. Several of the applications are on Waterways and land that floods (31 Greendale Rd). The waste water and storm water from the Greendale Cemeteries flows into the Nepean River.
Country roads are zoned 80km/hr speed areas and by having traffic slow down in the middle of the roads frequently can translate to a rise in vehicle accidents and fatilities. In particular Greendale Road is a poorly maintained, narrow, winding road. This not ony endangers potential visitors to the cemeteries and crematoriums but also endangers the lives of local residents with poorly planned traffic flow.
Listed are the summarised DAs for Cemeteries and Crematoria in Sydney:
1) 41 Greendale Road, Bringelly
Applicant: Robert Itaoui from Merrylands
For:DA for Bringelly Memorial Garden
Size: 25,000 plots, 10.12 hectares, Lot 5 DP 252040
For info: DA-394/2010 Cheryl Keane cheryljarrettkeane@yahoo.com
2) 31 Greendale Road, Bringelly
Applicant: NSW United Turkish Islamic Centre
For: Muslim Denominational Cemetery
Size: 6,000 plots, 10 hectares
For info: DA-957/2010 Dianne Newell didaveontheroad@yahoo.com.au
3) 321 Greendale Road Greendale
Applicant: Peter Georges, Peter Georgopoulos, Peter & Farah George (One of them?)
For: DA for Multidenominational Cemetery/Crematorium/Houses of Worship/ Flower Shop
Coffee Shop and Administration Office.
Size: 70,000 plots, 40 hectares, Lot DP599308
For info: DA-1133/2010 Duncan McDonald nogreendalecemetery@hotmail.com
4) 992 Greendale Road Greendale
Applicant: Nirmal Taluja
For: Cemetery, Crematorium & Meditation Centre
Size: 19.5 Hectares 2 Creamatoria, 10,000 ash storage spaces. Dormitory accommodation, Meditation hall and Dining facilities
DA -1291/2010 For info: Duncan McDonald or Ron Sullivan nogreendalecemetery@hotmail.com
5) Twelth Avenue, Rossmore - rejected
5) Twelth Avenue, Rossmore - rejected
6) 2207 Elizabeth Drive, Luddenham
Applicant: ADC Lucas for Combeda Pty Ltd
For: Luddenham Memorial Park, Cemetery & Crematorium
Size: 36.6 Hectares, 62,000 plots, 1 crematorium, 3 chapels, cafe/admin and florist
For info: DA-10/1208 Sascha Vukmirica 0404 659 043
7) La Perouse Heritage Chinese Gardens (A 150 year old heritage listed market garden, established from back in 1788, which is part of our city's history. The shame in trying to destroy our history).
Applicant: Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park Botany Cemetery (Botany Cemetery and Eastern Suburbs Crematorium Trusts)
For: Extension of ESMP cemetery and crematorium
Size: 7 hectares
For info: http://chineseaustralia.org/?p=924 and Daphne Lowe Kelley 0417 655 233 lowekelley@bigpond.com
8) 435-437 Great Western Highway, Blue Mountains Crematorium at Faulconbridge
Applicant: Blue Mountains Funeral (Carrick Group Pty Ltd)
For: DA X/216/2010
Status: Rejected by council, currently at Land & Environment Court
For info: They have a website which you can click on nocrematoriuminfaulco.blogspot.com which is maintained by the No Crematorium Strategy Group
It is our future, and we must prevent this from happening again & again.
We need to join and assist each other in forming one huge protest group. Contact your respective group leaders (listed above), join up and help. Provide them with your email address. One day soon, we can all join up as one HUGE group to petition our MPs to bring this matter into Parliament and officially legislate for controls and safety standards. We cannot keep going up against these developers individually. Firstly, they have more time and secondly, they have more money.
Currently, all of these individual DAs are wasting everyone's time and money. Particularly when they have major flaws. Examples of this are:
* Faulconbridge crematorium- does not meet recommended 200m buffer criteria
* Greendale Cemeteries & Crematoria - are surrounded by Farms & Dwellings, there is no sewerage, residents rely on rain water for drinking, there is no public transport and they are sited on a narrow rural road which is poorly maintained.
Waste water from these proposed developments will end up in the Nepean river.
The nearby farms are involved in: Chicken production, Market Gardens, Cattle & Sheep production & Hay making. These are all primary production industries.This is an area where the food for Sydney is produced.
* Bringelly, the proposed cemetery at 31 Greendale Rd Bringelly is located in a natural watercourse which is prone to flooding. Down stream residents use the water from the creek. Burials are planned to be without coffins. Groundwater contamination is likely.
The site is located on 5 Acres not far from Bringelly school and a few hundred metres from another proposed Cemetery at 41 Greendale Rd Bringelly.
* Luddenham cemetery & crematorium - is surrounded by farms, no council sewerage and still using tank water in the area, shallow groundwater and shallow standing water levels
* La Perouse Heritage Chinese Garden - shallow groundwater, will cost $40 million for trying to fix up 7 hectares or so of land in order to enable burial and a crematorium, the oldest example of farming in Australia. History will be destroyed.
What is the Government doing to solve this problem?
* 2008 Department of Lands 'Sustainable Burials Discussion Paper'
* Regional Consultative Council & Crown Cemeteries Committee formed to solve issue, last meeting was in 2010
* Berkshire is Crown land that has been set as for a Crown Cemetery site
* The NSW's Government Land and Property Management Authority has established a CCAC committee to sort out a practical and logical solution to this issue which you can read by clicking here
* Lee Rhiannon will try and raise the issue with Parliament for a statewide and nationwide set of standards to govern the establishment and siting of crematoriums. This will help cut down the cowboys out there from submitting their DAs without having to first meet strict pollution and control standards.
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