Betty Rudman and her son Roy at the boundary fence between her property and the park with its man-made lake. Trees along the boundary area have been thinned.


Longtime Kingscliff resident Betty Rudman, who lives next door to Noble Lakeside Park, and her son Roy sympathise with park residents opposed to the filling of a man-made lake there to make way for more housing.
Sydney-based real estate and property investor Keith Noble’s company has lodged a controversial development application (DA) to build an additional 45 homes in the over-50s retirement village which will be perched on piers over the water.
Approval rests with the contentious state-appointed regional planning panel, empowered to deal with all developments worth more than $10 million (Mr Noble has put the cost of the project at $10.38 million).
Mrs Rudman said that many trees had recently been chopped down in the park between the man-made lake and the boundary fence with her and a neighbour’s property.

‘Before we couldn’t see the caravan park, now we see right through there,’ she said.
‘They’ve spoiled a nice area there, lots of people would walk on the track there for exercise and lots walked their dogs, but they’ll lose that now if all these houses get built out onto the lake.’
But her son Roy was much more vocal about the development, saying Mr Noble should not be allowed to encroach on a buffer zone established in 1988 from a former sewage treatment plant (STP) site nearby.
The plant was decommissioned after Tweed Shire Council built a new STP at West Kingscliff, which was opened in December, 2008, but Mr Rudman says the 360-metre buffer zone still exists.

Mr Rudman said that for over 30 years he owned 15 acres across the road from his mother’s place and when he wanted to develop it into a manufactured home park in 1988, he was knocked back because the buffer zone disallowed it.
He said the restrictions applying to land around the old plant still existed and should also apply to Mr Noble as the additional 45 homes would fall within the buffer zone.

‘I couldn’t do it so why does Noble get to do it? Council considered me with those restraints in place so why not give Noble the same restraints?’ he said.
Mr Rudman said that when council wanted to set up a turf farm next to the old STP in the early 1990s he opposed it, took council to court and won.

In his objecting submission to council on the Noble Lakeside Park DA, Mr Rudman said the park had already been developed ‘to the full potential allowed’.
Mr Rudman said he assumed Mr Noble did not originally build homes in the area where the lake now is because it fell within the buffer zone.

He told council that while the sewage works may no longer function as a treatment works, ‘the structures are a sewage treatment plant’ and ‘the buffer still exists’.
He asks if ‘once again, will council… manipulate the buffer zone to suit a major developer?’
Mr Rudman also says a proposed retaining wall between the new homes and his mum’s property of 2.5 to three metres high would be an eyesore and unacceptable.

‘I believe Mr Noble gave assurances to tenants that the park would not be made bigger. This cost the tenants extra money for the assurance. I would hope council refuses the application to save the ratepayers a considerable amount of money (court, etc)’, he wrote.