'Royal Willows will be a bigger supermarket than Sydney's Homebush,' say opponents

Interim spokesman Jack Downey said the failure of council to support heritage listing for the Royal Willows Hotel, spurred the group's formation.

"The three year-long Royal Willows planning process doesn't pass the pub test. The pub has been part of the social fabric of Pambula since the 1880s," Mr Downey said.

PAAAG believes the development is "way over-sized" and out of step with the look and feel of the heritage conservation area.

"Pambula township is designated as local, one step above village level in council's latest strategic planning. Three commercial sites covering 6150sqm will be amalgamated for around 2000sqm of retail. PAAAG readily supports a new supermarket, but this is 33 per cent bigger than Sydney's Homebush 1500sqm supermarket proposed in 2018, which caters to high rise towers and about 10m visitors per year," Mr Downey said.

Mr Downey said that in October, 2018 when council's focus was water management issues for the site's development, council failed to acknowledge a detailed request for full heritage listing received from local historians.

This was confirmed by the town planner Elizabeth Slapp would was engaged by the proponents, Kel and Jeanette Stolzenhein.

Ms Slapp said the owners had a number of pre-lodgement meetings (prior to submitting the DA) with council and at no stage was the heritage nomination identified as a concern.

"In fact it was noted in the minutes of those meetings that council had no plans to heritage list the existing buildings and that they were generally supportive of the proposal for redevelopment," Ms Slapp said.

PAAAG is questioning statements and the interpretation put on heritage, made in supporting consultancy reports lodged with the DA last July.

As a first step the group has detailed its concerns in letters to the Minister and Shadow Minister for Planning.

To contact PAAAG, email Jack at mjatown@bigpond.com