The Pauline Fathers’ hopes of opening a new pilgrim centre in time for World World Youth Day have been dashed by council conditions of consent the Fathers consider “unfair and unreasonable”.
The Pauline Fathers had planned to have a new hall and 31 new rooms ready in time to house people travelling to World Youth Day in Sydney in July.
But work on the project has not yet begun, due to concerns the 86 conditions will impose an unacceptable financial and organisational burden on the church.
The conditions would restrict noise levels at the property boundary to less than a whisper, restrict use of the accommodation to weekends, and could require the Pauline Fathers to lodge separate development applications for each of its monthly Fatima Day masses.
The conditions of consent also give council the right to cancel approval for the Fatima Day masses at any time.
The Pauline Fathers are especially concerned the Fatima Day celebration has been classified as a Class 2 special event, only one step below the Class 1 events such as APEC.
According to RTA guidelines, Class 2 events are any planned activities which are partly or wholly conducted on a road, require special traffic management and may involve large numbers of participants, such as parades, marches and street market day.
As a Class 2 event, the Fatima Day celebrations would require 12 applications a year, involving approvals from council, police, the RTA and environmental agencies.
For the full story see the Southern Highland News, Wednesday, April 30
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