Wagga council sting developer Fetesi Pty Ltd with 'disappointing' fine

Fetesi Pty Ltd won approval from council last year to develop an abandoned block of land on Lake Albert road into a $12 million shopping complex, containing room for up to 25 potential new stores, restaurants or offices.

Construction is now underway on the block, but last week council slapped Fetesi with a $8000 fine for mud on the road in front of the site.

Fetesi co-owner Phil Andrea said the prolonged wet weather makes it difficult to avoid any dirt on the road and as soon as he was alerted to the issue, he cleaned it up. But then without warning received a fine.

"I was fuming," he said.

His partner Mick Neason said they've done their best to work constructively with council over the past four decades of operating in Wagga and council general manager Peter Thompson even recently held a meeting with local developers to create better relationships, making the fine even more disappointing.

"I'm not worried about the cost, I'm a bit disappointed to get the fine without a warning," he said.

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A council Spokesperson told The Daily Advertiser that a "number of fines" have been meted out to developers in recent weeks for failure to comply with "Protection of the Environment Operations Act to prevent soil movement off construction sites". The conditions have been around since 1997, they said.

"This is not a new requirement," they said.

Council is the regulatory authority responsible for enforcing compliance, they said, and are "answerable to the NSW Environment Protection authority" if they fail to enforce the law.

Fitzpatricks real estate commercial director Geoff Seymour said council's actions are "disappointing".

"I feel it's inappropriate for council to be slapping such fines on developers who are trying to better our city and trying to build new buildings and create jobs," he said.

"I had a comment yesterday from a developer who works around a lot of sites around NSW and they find the Wagga council most hard of any council to deal with.

"It's not good for our town, it's disappointing."

With rising costs already making life difficult to get projects over the line, the pair say council's poor communication with developers could drive builders away from the city.

"We've created a lot of work, created work for people. I said to the council , 'one day you're just gonna shut the whole industry down. Nobody's going to do this," Mr Andrea said. "You talk to any developer, they're saying the same thing."

Fetesi have been operating in Wagga for 40 years and are behind thousands of homes and many developments across the city, including a recent $5 million project on Fernleigh Road.

The Lake Albert road job will eventually be worth $12 million.

"We've always had a good relationship with council, just the last couple of years it's just fallen over," Mr Andrea said.

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