20 Council CONNECT May 2018 Property Vesting the land in a council means the council obtains the fee simply for the land. This, in turn, means it ceases to be Crown land. Council takes the land, subject to any native title rights and interests existing immediately before the vesting and any reservations and exceptions contained in the council vesting notice. The land vested in the council is taken to have been acquired as community land under the Local Government Act from the date of its vesting. However, the Minister may specify in the council vesting notice that the land is to be acquired as operational land, as long as: > the land does not fall within any of the categories for community land under the Local Government Act or > the land could not continue to be used and dealt with as it currently is if it were classified as community land. Closing public roads The purpose of the proposed amendments of the Crown Land Legislation Amendment Act to the Roads Act 1993 is to provide a means for councils to close council-owned public roads without the approval of the Minister. If a road is not reasonably required as a road for public use, or is not required to provide continuity for an existing road network and another public road provides lawful and practical vehicular access to land, then council may propose closure of that road. Council must give public notice of the proposed road closure in a local newspaper as well as to all owners of land adjoining the road and to all notifiable authorities. The notice must allow at least 28 days for submissions to be made. Notifiable authorities include Ausgrid, Jemena, Transport for NSW and RMS, among others. If a notifiable authority formally objects to the road closure, the road may not be closed until the objection is withdrawn by the authority or set aside by the Land and Environment Court. The council may appeal to the Court against a formal objection and, on such an appeal, the Court may either affirm the objection or set it aside. After considering submissions, the council may close the road by publishing a notice in the Gazette. It will then cease to be a public road and previous rights of passage and access will be extinguished. Owners of land adjoining the road may also appeal to the Land and Environment Court against the closure, and the Court may either affirm the closure or set it aside. Unlike the provisions relating to appeals by notifiable authorities, the new provisions do not prevent the council from closing the road until the objection is withdrawn or set aside by the Court. When the Crown Land Legislation Amendmen Act commences, the closure of public roads by councils should become a less costly and time-consuming exercise.