The developer behind the 24-hour service station proposal admitted to councillors that he expected to be met with an “army with pitchforks.”
Construction works could kick off in as little as eight weeks on a controversial new Mobil service station on the Pacific Highway, following the approval of a development application by councillors.
That’s according to Stephen Moore, the managing director of Central Coast-based development company RCI Group.
Mr Moore spoke at the Coffs Harbour City Council meeting on Thursday evening ahead of the crucial vote on the divisive DA, which saw three councillors vote in favour and two against.
Councillor Paul Amos declared a conflict of interest and did not vote, as he is the manager of Bailey Centre Liberty which is located nearby the site of the DA.
Mayor Cr Denise Knight also did not vote after declaring that she had a family link to the company behind the development.
The site of the yet to be built 24-hour Mobil petrol station on the Pacific Highway.
Mr Moore admitted he expected to be faced with an “army with pitchforks” at the meeting after the Council received 35 public submissions against the development. However, he was confident that the plans were compliant with all local and state government planning laws.
“It’s just a standard, mum-and-dad type of service station – and one that will kick off about 80 or 100 construction jobs in the next eight to ten weeks if we get approval tonight,” Mr Moore told the remaining councillors.
“Not only that, it will probably also drop fuel prices by about 20 cents a litre because we’ve done it at Port Macquarie, Salamander Bay, Moss Vale … you just can’t beat (Mobil) on price, they own the market.”
The $1.7m Mobil service station will be located north of the CBD and marks the sixth to be built in the vicinity, joining the likes of the Bailey Centre Liberty, Shell, United Petroleum, BP and Caltex.
Extracted from Daily Telegraph