Planning law and fast food outlets: in England the court sets things right

In light of the Clarence Valley Council Famous Five's stubborn insistence that they had to take the advice contained in a flawed council officer's report on the McDonald's Australia development application for an eat-in and drive through fast food outlet in Yamba on the NSW North Coast, this outcome a world away shows that councillors don't have to follow 'bad' advice like so many sheep:

Judge makes landmark fast food ruling
Michael Donnelly, PlanningResource, 14 June 2010

Planning approval for a fast food takeaway near a school with a healthy eating policy has been quashed by the High Court.

In a landmark ruling a judge declared that the London Borogh of Tower Hamlets "acted unlawfully" when it gave the go-ahead for "Fried & Fabulous" to open for business at 375 Cable Street, Shadwell, close to Bishop Challoner Catholic Collegiate School.

The judge said councillors had voted in favour of permission after being wrongly directed that they could not take account of the proximity of the local secondary school because it was not "a material planning consideration".

The council will now have to reconsider any further planning application for a takeaway at the site in light of today's ruling.

Councillor Peter Golds, leader of the council's Conservative group, said later: "This is a very important High Court decision.

"It clarifies the law and sets a benchmark that will enable local authorities everywhere to take account of health and well-being - particularly of schoolchildren - as factors in determining planning applications." ...............

Today the planning permission - granted in April following a 5-1 vote in favour, with one abstention - was quashed by Mr Justice Cranston, sitting in London.

The judge said that when the application for a hot-food takeaway was granted by the council's development committee in April, an officer's report specifically advised council members that the proximity of the proposed fast-food outlet to the school could not be a material planning consideration.

Richard Harwood, appearing for the council, had argued that at the committee meeting itself the nearness of the school had in fact been treated as a relevant issue and taken into account.

Rejecting the submission, the judge said the officer's report was "a clear direction to the effect that the points about proximity could not be given any weight at all." ...........

There were indications that committee members who had voted in favour of the takeaway would have reached a different decision "if they had been properly directed".

The judge said: "I declare the council has acted unlawfully and I quash the grant of planning permission."

Just what does the Coalition believe about the postponed emissions trading scheme?

For the last six weeks or so the Coalition Opposition has been trumpeting what it calls Kevin Rudd's failure to implement a national emissions trading scheme in Australia:
"TONY Abbott portrayed Kevin Rudd as a leader who lacks the "guts" to fight for his political convictions today after the Prime Minister shelved the emissions trading scheme. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong today blamed political realities for Mr Rudd's decision to delay the scheme until the end of 2012, citing opposition in the Senate and slow global progress on climate action. Ms Wong also said today that Mr Rudd would not go to a double dissolution election on an ETS because he wanted to serve a full term."
The Opposition spin taken up by the media has been that Rudders has sqibbed it entirely and an ETS is off the books completely, but somebody hasn't told that to the NSW Nats who still believe the scheme is roughly on schedule.
Here's NSW North Coast Nats MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell still trying to scare the locals in his latest letterbox drop:

Stop the filter or sack the senator!

Victorians are revolting at Filter Stephen Conroy and this time it's personal for some.

They want nothing less than Australian Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, consigned to the unemployment queue by Christmas.

An alternative view of the Rudd Government's home insulation scheme

The Daily Examiner letter to the editor on 14 June 2010:

Insulated from good news

IT may be unpopular.

It is never mentioned.

But ... I had insulation installed under the Federal Government scheme.

Two efficient workers did a great job and the results are absolutely fabulous.

It's cooler in summer and now that winter is here our heating is much more efficient.

Less energy is used to heat and cool the house, not just this year but into the future.

Workers employed during the economic downturn were keeping the wheels of commerce turning.

Best of all, instead of paying them unemployment benefits they were involved in a really productive energy-saving scheme that reduces our need to burn coal to produce energy to heat and cool the house.

But no one wants to hear that.

GRAHAM JESSUP, Grafton

Prideaux on Whales and Dolphins: ‘resource’ or ‘right’?

Whales and Dolphins: 'resource' or 'right'?

2010 started with a physical clash between whalers and activists in the southern ocean, sparking a global conversation about how we regard whales and dolphins – are they a resource for the human race, or do they have an inherent right to their life, their liberty and their wellbeing?

In January I asked this question on openDemocracy. At the time it seemed, to some at least, irrelevant and somewhat odd.

Now, with only one week to go before on the most fundamental wildlife protection decision in 25 years is taken – to resume legitimate and legalized whaling again or not, it seems more relevant than ever. The dialogue sparked by an eventful half year has also progressed.

An eventful half-year sparks a global conversation

In February, the 2010 Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science discussed whether the emerging scientific knowledge about the cultural and cognitive processes of whales and dolphins should influence international policy decisions concerning them. Their conclusions were that yes, it should.

Within three days of the conference, the orca Tilikum drowned his trainer. Unexpectedly, the media and the public didn't turn on Tilikum. Instead they openly asked if we should keep such mighty, complex and intelligent species in captivity.

In March the International Whaling Commission (IWC) met to discuss the details of a 'deal' about the future of whaling activities. Sharp debate erupted. And the political dance for positions began.

Within the week, The Cove, a documentary investigating the annual slaughter of more than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises around Japan, unexpectedly received the Academy Award for Best Documentary 2010.

By the end of March, a Los Angeles restaurant the Hump was closing its doors as a self-imposed penalty for serving whale meat.

In late April, an unprecedented US Congressional oversight hearing was held to review if there was education and conservation value of keeping marine mammals in captivity.

April also marked the second major oil spill in six months. Remarkably, people noticed that these spills were seriously threatening the habitats of whale and dolphin populations.

In late May another conference was being held in Finland to discuss question of whether whales and dolphins should be considered as non-human persons, concluding that all whales and dolphins have the right to life, liberty and wellbeing. The Declaration quickly went online for the world to adopt and signatures poured in nearly crashing the site.

Soon after Australia announced its formal intent to challenge to Japan's whale hunting in the Antarctic through the International Court of Justice.

Japan's rebuttal was to launch a fleet of five vessels to slaughter some 260 whales in the Northeast Pacific.

With six eventful months behind us, we now look towards the IWC meeting next week where Governments will formally consider the 'deal' to resume commercial whaling.

Taking the debate to the people, this weekend, Peter Garrett launched a YouTube campaign.

No longer is the Australian Government just speaking to Australians, now they invite the world to join them.

We have to decide now

This IWC meeting will in some ways conclude the six month conversation, and set the tone for our relationship with these animals for decades to come. Will our consideration of whales and dolphins be based on numerical calculations of abundance, or will we recognize whales and dolphins as highly evolved mammals living in complex societies, which we simply wish to respect?

That the discussion is even taking place, indicates we are on the road towards a position of respect, perhaps even rights.

No-one is suggesting that whales and dolphins be granted a right to vote, to hold a drivers license, or to receive a free and fair education. But, in this short half-year we have had enough examples posed to evoke a deep and thoughtful global conversation about our collective moral compasses.

Will we return to a world that accepts whaling? Will whales and dolphins, like Tilikum, continue to circle a pool for our entertainment? The conversation has evolved, and now the choice is ours to make.

Margi Prideaux, WildPolitics.net

* North Coast Voices would like to take this opportunity to welcome Margi Prideaux as a guest contributor and applaud her advocacy on behalf of all cetaceans.

I shouldn't laugh, but......

* A plague of locusts is due to hit Australia in time for the next federal election according to Bloomberg:
"Locusts are expected to hatch from August to October in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia states, according to the commission. The first-generation spring hatching alone could occur over a total area of 1.8 million hectares (4.4 million acres), the commission's Adriaansen said."

* One small mining company Metgasco is shooting itself in the foot. Assiduously lobbying federal government for regional infrastructure funding (which will help corporate development plans) while at the same time dissing the local MP over the new resources Super Profits Tax. Word is that Canberra is not amused.

* Someone locked a Labrador in the house - oh noes!

"MAX, the black labrador was accidentally locked inside a Daily Examiner reporter's house yesterday and decided to leave his mark in more ways than one. Not only did he wee in the master bedroom, he pooed in one of the kids' room, chewed up a nappy, raided the pantry and vomited after the debauchery."

* At least one dedicated reader of NSW State Library online offerings is threatening to cut that library card in half because it's becoming a bit of a lottery as to which webpage links actually work each day. Ah, life in rural 'n' regional Oz!

* Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata lets its slip show this month in that version of Teh Great Tax Fight:

"Mining company Xstrata Coal has revealed it will continue to buy up farmland within its Wandoan exploration lease area in Queensland despite last week suspending plans for the $6 billion project on the grounds the government's mining tax would make it uneconomic."

* Patrons at one Byron watering hole were overheard debating how long it would take a sheila to do a Corday if Tony Abbott became Australia's 27th prime minister.

* rod3000 Nothing perks you up like a 3 yr old's headbutt on the nose #wrestlemania

* The U.S. state which spawned Sarah Palin shows just how low dumb can go:

"The state of Alaska filed a lawsuit last Friday seeking to overturn the listing of beluga whales in Cook Inlet, home to the Port of Anchorage, as an endangered species."

* An oldie but a goodie from 2007 with an object lesson for Oz e-health proponents:

"An Italian woman who was mistakenly reported dead has won a yearlong battle to have her existence recognized by the government.
Pension agency INPS issued a formal apology to Maria Giuliani and reinstated her into its databank after removing her in January 2006 when another woman by the same name died, ANSA reported Thursday.
"But they only did it because the local media got hold of my case," Giuliani said of the apology.
Giuliani's removal from the databanks caused her pension rights to be revoked and she was removed from municipal and health computers.
"The first I heard about it was the following March when I went for a checkup."
"My GP fell back into his chair and said, 'But you're dead!'
"'No, I'm alive and kicking and I want to be examined,' I said. But he said he couldn't do it because officially I no longer existed."

* NSW Premier Kristina Keneally is staring down the barrel of massive electoral loss at the next state elections according to the bookies, :

"A specialist election punter from Sydney with leading bookmaker Centrebet has sounded a "death knell" for the NSW Labor government, outlaying nearly $25,000 on the Coalition at short odds to sweep to power next March! "The punter in two bets has taken just $1.15 and $1.14, with the Coalition now a red-hot $1.14 favourite to win, with Labor out to a whopping $5.35."

But she will never beat Sir Geoge Fuller's short 7 hour record as state premier.

* With all the media hoo-ha lately over Victoria Police, no-one's noticed a teeny weeny question surrounding the tale of two Garden State police commissioners having corresponded with a person convicted of serious offences.

When the Rudd Government decided that it wanted to first install and now extend ISP traffic interception, I bet it didn't factor in the possibility that some of this carefully saved info might be potentially embarrassing for future Labor governments if it 'leaked' onto the Internet.

Queen's Birthday Honours 2010: NSW North Coast recipients & full honours list

Margaret Hodgson, artist and illustrator of Copmanhurst; Jon Riordan, philanthropist from Yamba; Phyllis Pearson, musician from Nambucca; Tony Miller Dads in Distress founder from the Coffs Harbour district; these are just four of the many singled out in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2010.

The complete list can be found at The Australian Honours Secretariat:

• Companion (AC) in the General Division of the Order of Australia (29KB)

• Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia (95KB)

• Officer (AO) in the Military Division of the Order of Australia (11KB)

• Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia (A-L) (242KB)

• Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia (M-Z) (206KB)

• Member (AM) in the Military Division of the Order of Australia (20KB)

• Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the General Division (A-E) (203KB)

• Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the General Division (F-L) (145KB)

• Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the General Division (M-R) (134KB)

• Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the General Division (S-Z) (145KB)

• Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the Military Division (21KB)

• Public Service Medal (PSM) (85KB)

• Australian Police Medal (56KB)

• Ambulance Service Medal (ASM) (15KB)

• Emergency Services Medal (ESM) (18KB)

• Commendation for Gallantry (10KB)

• Distinguished Servce Medal (DSM) (11KB)

• Commendation for Distinguished Service (14KB)

• Conspicuous Service Cross (CSC) (34KB)

• Conspicuous Service Cross and Bar (CSC and Bar) (10KB)

• Conspicuous Service Medal (CSM) (32KB)

Note: Biographical notes have only been provided where the recipient has allowed this information to be provided online.