Minutes for the Berry Forum Committee Meeting
Meeting on 28 November 2022 8.30am at the Uniting Church

Present:  David Carter (Chair), Ian Hendry, David Brawn, Stuart Coughlan, Robyn Baxendale, Laurie Watson, Mary Beare,
Apologies: Emanuele Rattazzi, Gail Paton, Judith Ball, Geoff Armstrong and Heather Macdonald

Minutes of the Committee Meeting held on 31 October 2022: Approved
Actions arising from the Minutes – None.

Planning & Development

  • Agritourism – the changes to SEPP take effect on 1 December. There are no fire safety requirements for new function centre buildings and councils don’t have the resources to enforce the new ‘standards’. Several councils and LGNSW continue to request a deferral of implementation.
  • New service station status – the Committee agreed to the request for funding to get pamphlets out to residents, but agreed a more polished document was required.
  • 260 Mt Hay Rd Primitive Camping Refusal Review – LEC Conciliation Conference is on 21 December.
  • A Council Strategic Planning prioritization workshop was held on Saturday. Stuart will follow up.

Forum Meeting on 8 December
Agenda: Agritourism-Service station,

Infrastructure & Facilities
Nothing to repor

Other Business
Insurance discussion: Council has informed the CCBs that they are not covered by Council Insurance for
meetings in public buildings. The fee for our meetings at the UC includes public liability insurance.
Griffith University Research Report
David Brawn participated as a community representative in an 18-month research project (June 2018 – December 2019) conducted by Griffith University for the Shoalhaven City Council. He attended a debrief of the conclusions of the research last Saturday together with four other community representatives from around the Shoalhaven. The research focussed on the importance of community involvement in addressing the expected challenges from human and environmental impacts of climate change in the future. Griffith University expect to be involved with Council next year in introducing City-wide organisational arrangements to help build resilience through community action. Kangaroo Valley/Berry are likely to be asked to participate.

Lower Shoalhaven River Flood Study   
David Brawn is a community representative on the Council’s Northern Flood Plain Management Committee and will participate in a meeting next week to consider the final report concerning the “Lower Shoalhaven River Flood Study”. He will provide a summary of the main conclusions after the meeting

Next Committee meeting –?
Next Forum meeting –