In a written response, Berrigan Shire Council expressed ‘‘grave concerns’’, and ‘‘misgivings’’ with both the draft and its proposed implementation.
In the submission, council director strategic planning and development Dr Joanne Ruffin raised concerns that some recommendations in the report ‘Improving the Prospects for Agriculture and Regional Australia in the NSW Planning System’ were overlooked in drafting the SSAL map.
Dr Ruffin believes the map itself was ‘‘undoubtedly’ drafted in response to select recommendations, particularly recommendations three which states: ‘‘The statutory SSALUP Policy should be supported by a map of State Significant Agricultural Land’’.
Ignored, she said, were recommendations one and two, which advise the NSW DPI to ‘‘take a phased approach to adopt a statutory State Significant Agricultural Land Use Planning Policy’’ and ‘‘to ensure there is a clear determination of priority for agriculture (and therefore other permitted uses) in these zones’’.
‘‘The Berrigan Shire Council is disappointed that council, landholders, and development proponents are asked to provide comment on the development of a draft SSAL map in the absence of any policy framework or review of the objectives, permitted land use and application of the RU1, RU2 and RU4 zones,’’ Dr Ruffin’s submission read.
She said a review of current zoning and the legitimacy of land currently identified as ‘state significant’ could ‘‘make or break’’ the future of development and growth in the Berrigan Shire — 70 per cent of which is designated SSAL.
‘‘The state significant agricultural areas come right up to each town’s boundary,’’ Berrigan Shire CEO Karina Ewer said.
‘‘We need to work with the Department of Primary Industry and ask ‘well is it really all state significant?’. Because if that’s the case then where, and how, do our towns grow?’’
