Shell Cove agreement release pending

By ROD WISE

The Administrator of Shellharbour City Council, Mr David Jesson, has decided to review the management agreement underpinning the joint development of Shell Cove by the council and Australand.

He said he recognised the “interest” that has been building up over the past three weeks since the general manager of the council, Mr Brian Weir, announced on Friday, August 8 that initial construction of the boatharbour had been postponed to an indeterminate date.

Mr Jesson said his “objective is to have the management agreement released to the public in full at the earliest possible time”. However, he also noted there were questions of commercial confidentiality that had to be addressed but that the clause requiring the consent of both parties to its release was not an impediment.

(It may be noted that the existence of this clause was claimed by the previous, subsequently dismissed, council to prevent release of the agreement earlier this year.)

Mr Jesson said he could “understand the community’s concern about the announced delay in the next stage of the boatharbour works and I am working with the various parties to have a new start date announced for the project”.

Asked later whether the community should have confidence at all in any new start date, given the delays which have occurred over the past 15 years of the agreement’s life, he said that the marina’s postponement is due partly to a softening of land sales over the past 18-24 months, reducing the amount of cash in the kitty for further development.

“But sales will pick up,” said Mr Jesson, indicating that he had absolute confidence in the ultimate viability of the development and for that reason he had no intention of commissioning a consultant to put the project under the microscope.

As to the management agreement, he said he was then halfway through reading it and, at that point, he had encountered no compelling reason which should prevent its release as soon as possible. “It’s in everyone’s interest to do so,” he said.

As to what might be a commercial confidence that could prevent the release of any particular section, he said that he would take legal advice, but as he had not then found such a clause he could not say whether he would be taking that advice outside the usual legal resources of Shellharbour City Council.

However, he emphasised that he did not consider embarrassment to anyone about any previous decision regarding Shell Cove to be a compelling reason to prevent release.

“However, again I stress, that I have so far found no evidence of anything that might cause embarrassment,” he said.

When asked about the lateness of the decision to postpone the construction of the marina, despite the free-fall in Australand’s shares and the depressing reading of its half-yearly report to the stock exchange, he said he is confident that the developer understands that it is in its interest to be frank; and secondly, he is confident that the council’s staff exercised due diligence in monitoring the state of Australand’s affairs – despite all the publicly available documents suggesting it was in some difficulty.

Mr Jesson said that he wanted to reassure the residents of Shellharbour that no community assets are at risk – “all the unsold land is debt-free and the property of the council”, he said. “It is untouchable.”

• Next Monday’s regular monthly meeting of Shell Cove residents is likely to be more lively than usual.

Former Shellharbour councillor Geoff Rose said he had been contacted by several local residents who were expressing great anxiety about the deferment of construction of the boatharbour at Shell Cove.

The meeting will be held at the Shell Cove Community Centre, Southern Cross Boulevard at 7.00pm on Monday, September 1.