News
26 December, 2025
Date set for Woolworths appeal
The Land and Environment Court has set aside three days in May to hear an appeal over a proposed Woolworths supermarket in Moss Vale.
The Land and Environment Court has set aside three days in May to hear an appeal over a proposed Woolworths supermarket in Moss Vale.
Residents have been told that conciliation talks last month (November) between Woolworths and Wingecarribee Shire Council were unsuccessful.
The appeal will be heard from May 20-22.
Woolworths is hoping to build a new supermarket and associated infrastructure on land behind the existing Mobile service station and KFC in Moss Vale’s main street.
The application for a supermarket, BWS liquor store, retail outlets, commercial offices, an outdoor carwash and 291 paid carparking spaces was refused by the NSW Department of Planning’s Southern Regional Planning Panel in May this year.
Woolworths lodged an appeal in the Land and Environment Court on July 2.
The Southern Regional Planning Panel concluded that the proposed supermarket was not a natural extension of the Moss Vale town centre and its lack of integration would result in a “standalone retail destination accessible primarily by car”.
The panel also concluded that the scale of the proposed supermarket would have a negative impact on the viability and sustainability of the town centre and the resulting loss of business would also result in “the loss of a sense of place and community”.
Commissioner Peter Walsh from the Land and Environment Court visited the proposed development site on November 13 prior to confidential conciliation talks between Woolworths and Council.
Objectors told the Commissioner that the proposed development would split the town in two and compound existing traffic woes.
Former Wingecarribee Shire councillor and deputy mayor Ian Scandrett said the traffic implications would be “horrendous” and the proposed supermarket development was simply “not the right development for this part of town”.
Woolworths claims it undertook extensive community consultation both prior to and during assessment of the development application
It said it had partnered with Ethos Urban deliver a “robust” community engagement program and had also provided the community with up-to-date information via a project website.
As previously reported by The Southern Wire, Woolworths is also planning to subdivide the vacant site and build 30 residential villas.
Read More: Moss Vale, Southern Highlands