TWEED ratepayers will have to fork out thousands of dollars for the privilege of giving opponents of the giant Cobaki Lakes development the chance to voice their views at length to Joint Regional Planning Panel members.

The panel, which gave the nod to the first subdivisions in the proposed township last week, has come under renewed fire, partly because of the amount the members are paid.

Tweed ratepayers pay the two council-appointed members, barrister Robert Quirk and university lecturer Dr Ned Wales, $200 an hour.

NSW taxpayers cop the bill for the three government-appointed members, former politician Garry West, former Tweed council general manager Dr John Griffin and barrister Bruce Clark, at $1400 a meeting.

Thursday night's meeting went for just over three hours, including a session of more than two hours for 14 opponents to address the panel, and a further lengthy address by developer representatives, and followed a private on-site inspection by panel members.

Tweed Shire Council has revealed it paid panel members $4250 last financial year for a handful of meetings. That is thought to have been exceeded just for the Cobaki issue.

The cost and the performance of the panel has come under fire from former mayor Warren Polglase, who sat through last week's meeting along with Cr Dot Holdom and Greens Party councillor Katie Milne, who was one of the opponents to address the panel for more than 20 minutes.

Cr Polglase criticised the addresses to the panel as a repeat of what was said at a public briefing session two weeks before.

“Nearly all the people that spoke two weeks ago with their concerns raised the same concerns and points of view again,” Cr Polglase said.

“I don't think they had any idea of the cost. They just wanted to reinforce the point of view they put across two weeks ago.

“Some of the information they put forward was inaccurate. But the panel wouldn't know if it was true or not”

Cr Polglase said an example was a speaker criticising potential traffic problems he said would be caused by the development because Kennedy Dr could not handle the traffic and could not be widened, partly because power poles could not be moved.

“The council is spending $6 million on Kennedy Dr and all the poles are going to be moved. It's going to be widened to four lanes,” said Cr Polglase. “The panel would not know that. They just come in and read reports and listen to inaccurate information.

“I've never been a supporter of regional planning panels. Your local elected members are fully aware of what's happening in their area.

“Panel members cannot be expected to know what's going on.” Mr Polglase said the development would have been better considered by councillors and the decision – for approval – would have been the same at less cost.