At a council meeting last month, City of Bayswater acting chief Carissa Bywater confirmed the D’Orazio family were threatening legal action against the Carter family over the sale of wetlands at lot 14, 128 King William Street.
Council received a letter from the D’Orazio lawyers and deferred approving a $3 million purchase price.
The D’Orazio family refused to comment to the Eastern Reporter last month on the matter and instead have taken out an advertisement in today’s paper (page 4) responding to the claims.
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READ NOW“The D’Orazio family are disappointed that despite our willingness to compromise, including going above our legal obligations, this matter remains unresolved,” the statement said.
“The Carter family are disappointed that… council officers have made statements in the media with absolutely no contact with us to seek our input, let alone our agreement.”
According to the statement, the Carter family received no correspondence from the City regarding purchase of their land.
The D’Orazio family say that the land swap raised at a community workshop last year has not been actioned by the City, despite numerous requests.
However, Mayor Barry McKenna said the letter from the D’Orazio family lawyers had “muddied the waters” for the City to carry out the $3 million purchase.
“It would be good to have clarity from the families around the letter from the D’Orazio’s lawyers and the nature of the agreement between the two families to enable further information to be provided to council to progress the matter,” he said.
“The letter from the lawyers has added a degree of uncertainty and delayed the process and it would be helpful for us to see a copy of any agreement that exists between the two families regarding the wetland.”
Cr McKenna said the comments reported were taken from discussions at a council meeting and no media statement was issued by officers.
He said council’s initial focus was on negotiations for the purchase of the wetland.
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