Draft Minutes for the Forum Meeting

Thursday 4 December 2025 7:30pm at the Uniting Church Hall

Present: 201 people attended, including State MP Katelin McInerney, Mayor Patricia White, Councilor Selena Clancy, and Directors Andrew McVey and Kevin Norwood. An additional 96 residents registered their support for the Forum Committee by email (names of attendees and those who emailed are being provided to Council).

Welcome and Introduction: Laurie Watson (Chair)

Minutes of Meeting held on 16 October 2025:  Approved

Berry’s drainage & sewage infrastructure – Council Directors Andrew McVey (Shoalhaven Water) and Kevin Norwood (City Services) spoke to issues relating to ageing sewage infrastructure, impacts of flooding in Berry, storm water and the complexity of Town Creek ownership between Council and private properties.

Katelin McInerney, our State MP, spoke about roads and water infrastructure, and the downstream impacts of sewage contamination of waterways during heavy rains, particularly on the oyster farms at the mouth of the river.
She promised to be a strong advocate in government to obtain funds and noted the Minister for Transport has travelled Shoalhaven’s roads and is very aware of the problems.
Katelin acknowledged the very strong community interest in the future of David Berry Hospital after palliative care is moved to Shoalhaven Hospital in 2027.

Mayor Patrica White – in response to a question from the floor, Patricia briefly spoke to the financial results in 2024/25 and some of the “green shoots” indicated by the first quarter results for 2025/26.

Berry War Memorial Gardens – Peter Whitton spoke to the addition proposed and presented the concept designs. The project will be the subject of DVA Cenotaph grant and needs community support in the form of a brief comment supporting the addition of post-WW2 campaign memorials to the Cenotaph at Berry War Memorial Gardens.

Berry Hotel DA update – following the drop-in information session held by Feros on 20 November, constructive discussions were held with Feros CEO Simon Johnston about parking. Based on the Feros survey results and the target maximum of 354 patrons, there will be a shortfall of 70 parking spaces.

General Business

  • A vote of confidence in the Forum Committee proposed by an attendee, received almost unanimous support, with only four votes against.
  • The meeting was advised Council had dismissed the complaints from the developer Mr Yannopoulos and found the Committee had not breached any CCB Guidelines.
  • The meeting was also advised that the Committee had received a solicitor’s letter, on behalf of Yannopoulos, that alleged –
    “correspondence from the Committee includes statements and information relating personally to Our Client, which are misleading, and potentially defamatory. This letter serves as a concerns notice. Members of the Committee are jointly liable for any wrongdoing.”The Committee considered the allegations to be baseless, but as defamation cases can be extremely expensive to defend, they had engaged Bruce Burke who has 40 years-experience with defamation cases and provides support for volunteer community groups at a favourable rate. The Committee asked the Forum members present for permission to access funds previously donated by residents to defend against attacks on the Forum, and they again voted almost unanimously in favour.
  • An attendee complained about the minutes, which had already been confirmed
  • Next Forum meeting was confirmed as 19 March 2026.

Meeting closed: 8:50pm