“I have had discussions with Leslie Williams and members of the community on this matter and I have now decided that any sale of the Plaza Carpark site must protect the existing parking spaces,” Mr Blair said.

The parking places will be protected through a public positive covenant - this means any owner of the Plaza Car Park site will be bound to protect the existing car parks in any future development of the site.

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council wrote to the Minister on July 23 stating its position on the proposed sale and development of the Plaza car park site, including the former Food for Less building, to Woolworths.

Council expressed concerns that despite 20 expressions of interest in the site, including its own submission, the state government agreed to continue direct negotiations with Woolworths.

Council also reinforced its strong objection to the sale of the site, given freely to the Crown for the purpose of public car parking.

Director of development and environment Matt Rogers asked for a legal guarantee from Mr Blair, in light of considerable community concern, that Crown Lands protect all existing car parking spaces despite any additional parking that may be generated as a part of any future development of the land.

The Department of Primary Industries – Lands is continuing to negotiate with Woolworths on the possible sale of the site following the recent Expression of Interest process.”

No decisions have been made as yet regarding the sale of the site. 

Member for Port Macquarie, Leslie Williams, said she was pleased the car park spaces will be protected.

“This was clearly the desire of the community and I have worked hard to encourage the parties to come to this agreement,” Mrs Williams said.

“This outcome is a positive result for the community and I am determined to make sure open and honest discussions on the future of the foreshore continue.”

The call for greater transparency on the current process surrounding the proposed sale of the site has been the focus of community concern resulting in a Change.org petition and a second petition championed by Country Labor representative Kristy Quill which gathered more than 12,600 signatures and was tabled in parliament last month.

The Hon Courtney Houssos MLC spoke to the issue in the Legislative Council saying the Hastings community has made it loud and clear to the local member it does not want a waterfront Woolworths.

"The petition garnered more than 12,000 local signatures and now serves as an undeniable indication that Port Macquarie does not want this piece of Crown land sold off. The petition is a credit to the local campaigners who set about to make sure community opposition to this sale is well known," she said.

"Whether or not it is convenient for those opposite to admit, the local community in Port Macquarie feel like this process was flawed, they feel it did not take into account their concerns and, ultimately, they feel it was a bogus process set up to favour one outcome and ignore the rest.

"So while the member for Port Macquarie continues to deny that her community objects to this sale, we are firm in our support for the people of Port Macquarie, and we will continue to advocate until the government pays attention."