Northern Beaches Council today welcomed the announcement that the NSW government will no longer be pursuing the development of Ingleside as a growth area.

A Land Use and Infrastructure Implementation Plan for Ingleside was exhibited in late 2016 which proposed 3400 dwellings but was revised last year down to 980 dwellings following the risks highlighted in a subsequent bushfire study.

Council had questioned the viability of the revised plan, raising concerns of continued bushfire risk, lack of traffic and transport planning, the significant cost to ratepayers to provide the most basic infrastructure, significant impacts on biodiversity and the ability to deliver any affordable housing in line with Council's adopted policy.

Mayor Michael Regan thanked the government for listening to Council and the community.

“This news will be very welcome by many in our community and it’s great to have more certainty now for the future of this area.

“Planning for Ingleside will be handed back to Council and we’ll consider it as part of the development of our new Local Environmental Plan which we are working towards for the whole Northern Beaches area.

“However, we will not be considering any new housing development of the scale proposed by the government given we now have all the studies to demonstrate the significant bushfire risk, the environmental and Aboriginal heritage impacts and the need for costly infrastructure in order to make such a development feasible.”

Mayor Regan said Council would continue to advocate for the NSW Government to transfer into Council ownership, at no cost, the NSW Government land on which planning infrastructure is sited and ask the government to transfer surplus NSW government land for other public purposes such as sports fields, passive recreational spaces and biodiversity offsets.

“We now have an opportunity to repurpose some of this less environmentally sensitive land for broad community use.”