There were speakers at the public forum; there were speeches and questions from councillors, there were questions and yelling from a packed public gallery.
It took 45 minutes of debate, but Deputy Mayor Doug Eaton’s attempt to get Council to agree to coastal design work at Wamberal Beach came to naught.
Eaton’s motion, which asked Council to agree to engage consultants to develop, in consultation with private land owners, an alternative design for medium/long term remediation works including sand nourishment underpinned with a rock toe wall at Wamberal, was voted down.
The motion said the agreed design would be lodged with the Reconstruction Authority for approval and the work would be undertaken at the expense of impacted land owners.
Eaton said only a terminal protective structure correctly designed in accordance with Council’s Engineering Design Requirements could provide an acceptable level of further risk reduction to dwellings while improving and sustaining public beach amenity and public safety
“We can do nothing or we can try and provide a solution through the Reconstruction Authority,” Eaton said, warning that doing nothing would see Council doing more emergency works under the direction of the local emergency controller when the next emergency comes.
Both The Entrance and Wamberal beaches are four months into a 12-month declaration which allows Council to carry out temporary works with approval from the Reconstruction Authority.
Council has three lots of land which are part of the 72 waterfront lots at Wamberal.
Councillor Rachel Stanton asked how many landowners were aligned with the plan but the answer merely outlined the process involved before that.
Eaton’s motion noted that a Development Application for a seawall solution at Wamberal is currently under consideration by the Regional Planning Panel and is yet to be determined.
“We all know it’s not going to get approved,” he said.
That application is one of three DAs that cover the entire embayment.
Both Eaton and Stanton had recently sat on a regional planning panel meeting which dealt with another seawall application specifically for Wamberal beachfront homes at 85, 87 and 89 Ocean View Dr.
That decision is not yet public.
Councillor Belinda Neal said the Reconstruction Authority could only approve short term emergency works and a long-term solution should be made under the draft Coastal Management Plan which has been on public exhibition recently.
Councillor Sharon Walsh put up an amendment which would take that path.
Councillor Kyle MacGregor said it was the State Government that would make the decision and Walsh’s amendment was the way forward to getting real action from the State.
After about 43 minutes, the matter went to the vote.
First Walsh’s amendment was voted on.
Labor councillors and two independents voted for it while four Liberals and the three Team Central Coast councillors voted against it.
Stanton declined to vote.
An abstention counts as a vote against so the amendment failed.
Eaton’s motion was then considered: four Liberals and the three Team Central Coast councillors voted for it.
Labor councillors and two independents voted against it.
Stanton again declined to vote, with her abstention counting as a vote against – so the motion failed.
It had all come to naught.
But elsewhere in the meeting, the councillors noted an Offshore Sand and Nourishment Taskforce report.
In April, councillors had instructed the CEO to contact NSW coastal councils to gauge interest in a task force to explore approvals that would be required for beach nourishment, approvals that may be required, infrastructure that may be required, and potential sharing of costs.
The report outlined a summary of the feasibility of sand nourishment as an action in the NSW State Disaster Mitigation Plan being undertaken by the NSW Government.
“Staff intend to provide updates on these matters to the Coastal, Estuary and Floodplain Risk Management Sub-Committee even in the absence of a taskforce,” the report said.
if you’re going for a blockbuster grand motion to get all the attention, it’s best to make sure you have the numbers in the chamber to get it across the line first.
Both The Entrance and Wamberal beaches are four months into a 12-month declaration which allows Council to carry out temporary works with approval from the Reconstruction Authority.
What Eaton wanted them was rocks temporarily placed along the beach .. and removed
How is that other than an expensive charade offering questionable long term protection if one looks at what has happened to the rocks previously placed under LEOCON instructions.
a further waste of time energy and emotion all for no avail you decide to build there you suffer the consequences
*nought
Reading this you can see why Australia is slowly grinding to a halt,red tape, over reaching beaurocracy, self interest and ego all combine to produce in efficiency, lack of productivity and apathy,publicly, privately and commercially.
Have Councillors considered the idea of building an offshore reef ring, like an atoll, to absorb the erosive power of wave impacts further offshore? Similar to one that has been built in Middleton Beach Albany WA?
It’s NOT red tape! This is what happens when people insist on ignoring the Council’s advice (since the 1970s) NOT to build on the dune at Wamberal… and the Land and Environment Court’s decisions to allow them. In other words, it’s the result of insanity.