Maitland council cancels park sale after discovering it's community land
Maitland City Council voted to cancel a park sale. They discovered the land was community property and could not be sold.
The council's general manager said sorry for errors in land records that had not been fixed for decades. Legal advice found that Lots 6 and 7 on Clift Street were community land, not operational land.
They could not be sold. The council had mistakenly believed it owned the land outright.
The July vote to sell sparked community outcry. Councillors voted unanimously on Tuesday to reverse the decision.
The general manager said council would look into how it identifies, checks and gets rid of land. This would happen before proposals reach the property advisory panel.
The Clift Street land will now be listed as community land. It will be included in the next review of council's community infrastructure strategy.
- Clift Street, Maitland
- Location
- 6 and 7
- Lots affected
- July 21
- Sale vote date
- Tuesday
- Rescission vote date
Why it mattersIt shows how council errors can nearly sell off public green space. It shows why community pressure and legal review matter.
AustraliaOther Australian councils may now review their own land records to check for similar classification errors that could affect park and public space ownership.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 2 h ago
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