PORT Stephens Council has side-stepped a possible $8.5 million legal challenge after an application to rescind a controversial land acquisition at Williamtown was approved by the state government.
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The council applied to the NSW Local Government Minister Don Page last year for permission to give back the land it bought from the Towers family in order to build the Stockton Bight Track.
The move came after the Towers family started procedures to take the council to the Land and Environment Court, claiming the price the council paid did not take into account a multimillion-dollar access deal they allege they had with Macka’s Sand to access their land.
Councillor Geoff Dingle said the council received notification on Wednesday, March 20 that the application to rescind the move had been approved and a notice of the move has also published in the latest edition of the Government Gazette.
Notification of the approval can be found on page 681 of the March 22 issue.
Cr Dingle said the next step for the council would be to discontinue the compensation proceedings with the Towers family.
The final bill for its legal costs so far is yet to be calculated or released but previous media reports state that costs had already exceeded $140,000.
