Biodiversity and Revegetation Compensation Package update

We have to except existing bushcare sites as part of the Biodiversity Compensation Package or the community will lose access.The GreenWay stakeholders (Councils, IWEG and the Steering Committee) have submitted a formal response to the draft Biodiversity Compensation Package proposed by TfNSW. Our position is that:

• compensation sites should be in the rail corridor
• compensation must meet the 1:1 condition of approval
• only extensions to existing bushcare sites should be included in the package
• funding to maintain the sites must be adequate and in line with the figure used by the NSW Environmental Trust to fund bushcare projects
• maintenance 'in perpetutity' means more than 5 years.

Except existing sites in package or lose access

The Loftus Street bushcare site and the Little Street bushcare site have been included in the proposed package. Both these sites have significant areas of existing habitat that have been maintained by volunteers for many years, with extension areas which are yet to be revegetated. If we do not accept these existing sites in the package, they will not be fenced and the community will lose access to them. We would like to see the whole site fenced and only the extensions included in the package as a gesture of good will to the community.