HILL Top residents have finally won a battle in what has been a losing war against the Department of Sport and Communities over the Southern Highlands Regional Shooting Complex (SHRSC).
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The Planning Advisory Commission (PAC), after a recent inspection of the site, rejected the department's application to effectively double the maximum noise limits at the complex.
It found the application ignored residents' amenity in favour of the shooting range, did not assess the possible impacts on residents and failed to present any case for the modification.
The department had initially sought to increase the noise limit from 75 d(B)A to 85 d(B)A (doubling the volume) and to use an average of shots measured rather than the loudest shot.
Hill Top Residents Action Group representative Julie Cook said that despite the victory the fight against a "corrupt" process would go on.
"This is only one small win in a larger battle that has already been lost," she said.
"The approval has already been given and the impact of the existing consent is enormous.
"All we've done is manage to prevent it from being even worse.
"We won't be giving up the fight. The complex is clearly not going to provide what the shooters require and it certainly doesn't provide what the community requires.
"Everybody could have been satisfied if they had found a more reasonable site to begin with."
A letter from then-Premier Bob Carr, dated June 2003, obtained by Ms Cook under Freedom of Information legislation, revealed a deal between Labor and the Shooters Party.
In the letter, Mr Carr promised Shooters Party leader John Tingle he would acquire the site as a "home base" for the Illawarra Regional Shooting Association (IRSA), if his government was re-elected.
"Subject to appropriate studies, it is possible through site specific legislation to expand the existing (Hill Top) facility to accommodate a number of ranges which could operate simultaneously," Mr Carr said in the letter.
"If the government is re-elected, we intend to introduce legislation specific to the Hilltop (sic) site.
"This expansion would provide for a home base range for the IRSA, which I understand has been able to use this range to allow its members to meet their attendance obligations under Firearms Act 1996.
"With continued urban encroachment, noise and environmental issues resulting in the closure of rifle ranges, it is imperative that the Ministerial Advisory Council on Shooting Clubs continue to provide advice to government on the future of ranges and identify opportunities for consolidation."
Ms Cook said the Department of Sport's application was a deal struck between the government and the Shooters and Fishers Party which, along with the Christian Democratic Party, hold the balance of power in the NSW Upper House.
"The Department of Sport put in the application for the shooting complex with taxpayers' funds," she said.
"As soon as the complex is finished, it is given, by lease, to the shooting clubs who can retain any profit. Nothing is returned to the taxpayers.
"It equates to $6 million handed to seven private shooting clubs, a gift from the government of a thousand hectares of former conservation area."
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