Donna Layton of Marshall Notaras Hardwoods
Timber NSW with its local members in the Clarence Valley have been distributing templates for the past week to local timber businesses, non-timber businesses and residents or employees that live in the region to use as submissions to the Clarence Valley Council which is seeking public feedback in relation to native forest logging on public land. Source: Timberbiz
At its June meeting the council resolved to defer an item to phase out native forest logging on public land to its October meeting to allow time for further consultation with industry groups and the community. The matter will also be discussed by councillors at a workshop.
The council is seeking written feedback from any industry stakeholders and interested parties, businesses, organisations and the community.
This was a reaction to a successful motion that was passed at the NSW Local Government Association conference in 2022.
Timber NSW CEO Maree McCaskill said her organisation was alerted two days before the meeting in June.
She said Donna Layton of Marshall Notaras Hardwoods, Jason Blanch of Big River Group, Mark Hitchins and Darrell Simmons of Koppers Wood Products and the McPhersons of Dustys Logging had gathered local businesses and contacted councillors which resulted in more than 20 people attending the meeting in McLean and having the motion deferred until October.
She said the motion also called for industry and public consultation.
However, she said that last week letters began arriving from Council officers indicating that submissions had to be in by 14 August. There was no public or industry consultation process or media notification as required.
Ms McCaskill said that again the industry mobilised and the submission date was extended to 28 August.
Timber NSW CEO Maree McCaskill said that a major and more technical submission that addresses all the points made by the Council’s Biodiversity Committee is being prepared by Timber NSW and will be referenced in the templates.
“Through our local members, the community has been activated and we are supplying the templates to our colleagues at AFPA NSW and the CFMEU,” she said.
“To date the community support has been overwhelming and I think the Council meeting in October will hear the voice of the industry and community.”
For any further information or copies of the submission templates contact [email protected] or [email protected]
