Following Tuesday's marathon eight-hour February meeting, the first ordinary meeting of 2025, four rescission motions have been put forward by various councillors.

Those motions are:

• 10.2 Review the Code of Meeting Practice
• 11.2 Creation of a subdivision on Booyong Road, Clunes
• 12.2 The creation of a Lismore City Council Property Strategy
• 12.7 Nuclear Free Peace Zone Policy

The Draft Code of Meeting Practice review was placed on public exhibition for 42 days (20 December 2024 to 31 January 2025) after council resolved to make changes to the existing document to streamline monthly meetings making them more efficient.

There were 11 public submissions received by council.

The most relevant changes to the Code of Meeting Practice include:

• Moving Public Access from the start of council meetings at 10am to prior to council meetings at 9am. Public Access will be streamed live and recorded.
• Change the number of speakers to two for and two against (from four for and four against).
• There is a maximum of ten (10) speakers. This is necessary because of the one-hour time limit on public access. It allows for change over time of speakers, questions and responses to questions.
• Each speaker will be allowed three (3) minutes (reduced from four)
• Limit responses to councillor questions to one (1) minute (currently unlimited)
• A councillor may submit no more than three (3) notices of motions to be considered at each Ordinary council meeting.
• A councillor may submit no more than three (3) questions with notice for response at each Ordinary council meeting.
• The length of a council meeting will be no longer than 5 hours after it begins. It can be extended by 30 minutes by resolution.

During Tuesday's meeting, councillors opposed to the changes had their say depending on its relevance. For example, Cr Rob objected to being restricted to three notices of motions and three questions with notice. Cr Guise objected to Public Access moving to 9am, the ten maximum speakers and the change to two speakers for and two against.

The first vote to not adopt the changes was defeated. This was followed by three amended motions, which were all defeated before the original motion to adopt the Draft Code of Meeting Practice was passed 7/4.

When the rescission motion is debated at the next council meeting, it is highly unlikely that it will be successful.

11.2 Clunes Subdivision

Council staff recommended that the Clunes subdivision to create two (2) lots and the construction of a new dwelling on proposed Lot 2 and associated infrastructure at 7 Booyong Road, Clunes not be approved was carried 6/5, with Crs Hall, Gordon, Battista, Bing, Jensen and Krieg voting for and Crs Rob, Knight-Smith, Dalton-Earls, Guise and Waters against.

Unusually, for a DA of this size, it was debated for over an hour with different amendment motions put forward.

Council staff reasons were long and detailed:

1. the proposed development does not provide for the orderly development of the site or good design and amenity of the built environment due to undersized lots and unacceptable sewage management arrangements (Section 1.3 of the EP&A Act 1979).

2. the proposed development is inconsistent with the following clauses of Lismore Local Environmental Plan 2012 (Section 4.15(1)(a)(i) of the EP&A Act 1979):

a. Clause 2.3 – Zone objectives

b. Clause 4.1 – Minimum subdivision lot size

c. Clause 4.6 – Exceptions to development standards

d. Clause 6.4 – Drinking water catchments Report Lismore City Council Meeting held 11 February 2025 - DA5.2023.301.1 - Subdivision to create two (2) lots and the construction of a new dwelling on proposed Lot 2 and associated infrastructure at 7 Booyong Road, Clunes 25

e. Clause 6.9 – Essential services

3. the proposed development is inconsistent with the following requirements of the Lismore Development Control Plan, Part A, Chapter 1 – Residential Development (Section 4.15(1)(a)(iii) EP&A Act 1979): a. Element 4.10 – On-Site Sewage and Waste Water Management.

4. the proposed development is inconsistent with the following requirements of the Part A, Chapter 6 – Village Subdivision of the Lismore Development Control Plan (Section 4.15(1)(a)(iii) EP&A Act): a) Element 4.1 – Lot Size b) Element 4.9 – Sewer (non-reticulated areas)

5. the site is not suitable for the proposed development (Section 4.15(c) of the EP&A Act 1979)

6. the proposed development is not in the public interest (Section 4.15(e) of the EP&A Act 1979)

12.2 The creation of a council Property Strategy

As reported previously, this motion turned into a Richmond River Historical Society and its supporting councillors versus creating a property strategy that will look at councils building assets and peppercorn leases to determine if there are better uses of the buildings, thus improving council's financial position.

The fight will be ongoing for the RRHS team and its supporters to keep the Lismore Museum in its current building, the Lismore Municipal Building, until the rescission motion comes back to council, where the same debate will be had again.

It should be noted that council resolved to find a suitable building to house the Lismore Museum as part of its Property Strategy.

12.7 Nuclear Free Peace Zone Policy

This motion was looking to repeal council's policy number 3.1.1, the Nuclear Free Peace Zone Policy.

This was passed 6/4 with Cr Hall out of the chamber.

Rescission Motions are standard practice for all local council's in NSW. Their purpose is simply to overturn the resolution of council that was passed during a council meeting.

The likelihood of a council resolution being rescinded is at long odds. The rescission motion is more about politics. It's about councillors and the public restating their case that was unsuccessful in the first place. It is about garnering more public support to try and influence a councillor's previous vote—all within the Local Government Act 1993 - Section 372.

As well as a low chance of success, it will add to a council meeting that was already over 8 hours long.