The decision was passed five votes to three in last Tuesday’s ordinary meeting at council’s chambers.  

In a letter to the Great Lakes Advocate, Oasis Service Station owner Stan Wilson said the proposed outlet would interrupt traffic flow and threatened the area’s independent retailers.

The proposed Woolworths petrol station will be built on lot 51, on the Lakes Way near Leo Street, which Mr Wilson’s brother, Robert Wilson owns.

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It will have access to the Lakes Way and Douglas Avenue. 

“Council has always rigidly enforced the no access to the Lakes Way policy including the recent Coates Hire development application at south Forster in May,” Mr Wilson said.

“The site is a block of land located in Douglas Avenue industrial area which backs onto The Lakes Way and has never had any lawful access to the Lakes Way, being a condition of the original subdivision approval. 

“In its current iteration, I cannot see how council could lawfully grant consent to this DA.

“The matter will now be referred to my legal team for further advice in relation to possible proceedings in the Land and Environment Court.”

Great Lakes Council development assessments manager Wayne Burgess said they were allowed to grant access to the Lakes Way because the land was under a section 88 instrument, which meant council could be convinced to grant access.

“The council agreed to allow access to Lakes Way because the Roads and Maritime Service (RMS) had no objection to it,” Mr Burgess said. 

“The major reason for agreeing was because it is unsafe if petrol tankers only had access via Douglas Avenue.”

At last Tuesday’s meeting, resident and vocal opponent of the Woolworths petrol station Paul van Drunen said based off his previous experience as a planner for petrol stations and KFC outlets, he shared Mr Wilson’s concerns about the traffic flow. 

He said Woolworths’ Shop A Docket system would bring Tuncurry residents to the petrol station which would create congestion.

“People will go out of their way to cash the Shop A Dockets in, which would create congestion and accidents on Grey Gum Road,” Mr van Drunen said.

While Woolworths had completed an assessment on traffic flow that RMS approved, Mr van Drunen said it did not take into consideration peak traffic time in the holiday period.

However, Chris Ferreira, a consulting town planner who works closely with Woolworths, disagreed with Mr van Drunen.

At the Tuesday meeting Mr Ferreira said the traffic plan was rigorous.

He said the DA was allowed in the zoning area and the lot was well distanced from future developments Council had planned.

Mr Ferreira also said Shop A Dockets would not pull people off the road, the petrol station would only service passing trade.

While Woolworths’ monopolisation of the area was a concern Mr Wilson raised, some councillors said they could not factor in an individual’s economic viability when approving development applications.

Councillor Carol McCaskie said they were often faced with what they wanted to do, and what they had to do.

“We must (vote to approve),” Cr McCaskie said.

“If we do not we could end up in the environment court at the cost of the rate payer.”

However councillor Linda Gill, who voted against the motion along with Tony Summers and Leigh Vaughan, said there were many factors to consider.

“The application will have an impact socially and economically. We’ve seen that when someone big comes into town individual providers suffer.”

Mr Wilson said Woolworths would dominate the Forster Tuncurry fuel market.

“Should they wish, Woolworths would be able to sell fuel at below cost until the independent sites close. Then of course prices will be able to be greatly increased.”

Potential conflict of interest

BECAUSE Council lease the Tuncurry Woolworths land and building to Woolworths, a conflict of interest was found in approving the company’s petrol station in the area.

However, Council invited City Plan Senior Consultant Garry Fielding as an independent party to review the situation, and he found no conflict of interest.