24/02/2004 Newcastle Herald

Tomalpin: denial on pressure

By IAN KIRKWOOD

THE National Parks and Wildlife Service denied yesterday buckling to pressure from the Premier's Department over the Tomalpin industrial park, near Kurri Kurri. Department of Environment and Conservation deputy director-general Simon Smith said there had been a ``long, hard argument" about how industry and environmental concerns would coexist at Tomalpin but the national parks service was ``happy with the outcome".

``We don't feel there was any unreasonable pressure put on us," Mr Smith said. The Herald reported on Friday that the Greens and NSW Opposition Leader John Brogden were calling for an independent inquiry into the rezoning of land at Tomalpin. Concerns had been raised in documents obtained under under the Freedom of Information Act, including a letter from Premier's Department head Col Gellatly to then national parks boss Brian Gilligan. ``If the letter from the Premier's Department was expressing anything, it was impatience at how long it all had taken to come about but that's normal," Mr Smith said. ``It's the Premier's Department's role in these sorts of things to help get decisions. ``We're happy with the outcome. We're happy that there will be representative ecosystems preserved here." Mr Smith said the 2002 rezonings at Tomalpin allowed 870 hectares to be zoned industrial, 855 hectares to be zoned for habitat protection and 1273 hectares to be amalgamated from state forest, Crown land and national park to form the Weerakata National Park.

He confirmed that the habitat protection land could be built on. Friends of Tumblebee residents' group spokesman James Ryan said it sounded as though national parks was simply repeating promotional material. Mr Ryan said it was not acceptable for a deputy director-general of national parks to say that a national park could be claimed as a ``conservation outcome" for a new industrial park.