The City of Blue Mountains is located within a World Heritage listed area and as such deserves to be treated differently to other areas in NSW. During my time on Council I have successfully fought against overdevelopment across the mountains, including protecting escarpment land and pristine bushland from development, I was a member of the Council that saw in World Heritage listing, played a leading role in developing our creek buffer zones; and supported the bushland and tree preservation orders protecting endangered species.

Where I grew up in Mt. Riverview, we had a valley beyond our back gate, which contained a great variety of flora and fauna. It was lovely to walk through that part of nature and caused me to understand, even as a child, why exactly preserving nature against unchecked development was important.

When, later in life, I lived in the Campbelltown and Penrith areas with my children, I saw the results of overdevelopment and overplanning. A small, lifeless planned park has nothing to teach children. Untamed, glorious nature does. That's why I believe that we need to preserve our current balance.

• We are opposed to recreational hunting in the Blue Mountains National Park
• We support the introduction of water bubblers, subject to available funding
• We support sustainable practices
• We support a review of the way we manage green waste in the Blue Mountains. We would like such a review to examine the possible introduction of green bins.
• We believe LEP 1991 should be updated so the environmental protection measures are consistent with LEP 2005.

While I believe we as a city need to grow in terms of development. Protection of the flora and fauna within the city needs to be assured. Protected habitat needs to be set up for some of the endangered species. Spotted quolls, turquoise parrots, red crowned toadlets, as well as protecting the ecologies like the hanging swamps. Protection also needs to take into account our historical assets like lennox bridge, cox's road etc.