GAWLER Council has explored the option of joining a court challenge which could stall the progress of the $500 million Springwood housing development at Gawler East, with a decision made behind closed doors.

As reported by The Bunyip last week, Adelaide to Port Campbell pipeline operator SEA Gas has lodged an appeal in the Environmental, Resources and Development Court over the State Commission Assessment Panel’s (SCAP) categorisation of the Springwood development applications.

At a special meeting held a fortnight ago, council discussed the legal challenge, with a letter from SEA Gas’ legal team Johnson, Winter and Slattery tabled for elected members.

The letter noted during Gawler Council’s presentation before the SCAP decided to approve the Springwood development applications, it had also stated the category one classification was “incorrect”.

“SEA Gas has instructed us that it would support any application brought by the Gawler Council to be joined to our client’s application,” the letter read.

During the public-portion of the meeting, elected members noted the category one classification was “undesirable”, but later during a confidential session discussed the lawsuit in more detail.

Any decisions made during the confidential session have not been made public by council.

During the Springwood expansion development application process, SCAP categorised the applications as “category one” before approving them in February, meaning no public consultation was required before the panel made a decision.

SEA Gas’ legal challenge contends the developments should have been classified as “category three”, meaning a public consultation process would be compulsory.

Speaking to The Bunyip last week, planning minister Stephan Knoll said the State Government did everything it could to “make sure that we’ve dealt with things appropriately”.

“I can’t speak to the specifics of the case, that’s something which is going to have to wend its way through the courts,” he said.

“What I’d say is especially at this time, when we’re dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, we need to do everything we can to keep people in jobs and make sure our construction centre keeps moving forward.

“We as a government have done everything we can to make sure that we’ve dealt with things appropriately. But I think the most important thing I need to do at the moment is make sure that we don’t see a disruption to more jobs than we’ve had to see already through coronavirus, so that has to be first and foremost in our minds.

“Again, I can’t speak to the specifics, but I just urge all parties to think first and foremost about people’s livelihoods which might be affected because of this.”