Editor’s note: Mr Paul Alexander, CEO of Mangrove Mountain Memorial Club and Golf Course, contacted Central Coast Newspapers as we had published extracts from a letter he recently sent to club members.
Mr Alexander requested that we publish the letter in full on the basis that he believed we had “left numerous important facts out”.
A full transcript of Mr Alexander’s letter to members follows.
The Mangrove Mountain Memorial Club would like to update all members on the development of the landfill site and the works that members will see being carried out over the next few months.
As I am sure many members would have seen the stories in the press lately and on television which are trying to join Mangrove Mountain landfill site with the dumping ground in Spencer.
It is important for all members to know that the Mangrove Mountain landfill site is a licensed site for landfill and Spencer has just been used as a dumping ground illegally.
Also a statement from the EPA’s website in July 2017 confirms the following from an independent assessment that was done following requests from community groups.
The independent assessor was actually also chosen by the community groups to clarify that the site is not affecting the water quality on the Central Coast and other matters: “This independent assessment found no evidence the landfill is affecting ground or surface water quality which confirms the assessment of water quality tests in surrounding creeks that the EPA and NSW Office of Environment and Heritage have done previously, along with groundwater monitoring undertaken by Verde Terra’s consultants”.
The Mangrove Mountain landfill has consent orders from the Land and Environment Court dated August 2014 for the redevelopment of the landfill site to an 18 hole championship golf course for the community and members.
The process in court and mediation took over two years to complete and was signed off to improve the landfill site’s environmental responsibilities and to finish the landfill site with an end date being 10 years from commencement.
Unfortunately, for the past three years, we have seen no progress on these orders, but this is about to change and we would like to thank all members for continuing to support the community club during the redevelopment.
Golfing members will have noticed that the landfill site has had to extend its boundaries due to the following reasons from the EPA.
The areas newly removed from the golf course are to allow upgrades to the landfill’s infrastructure.
New dams will be constructed to allow better management of on-site water.
New drains will be installed to ensure rainwater that lands on the golf course does not flow into the landfill and to upgrade roads for better access in all weather.
These areas will not be used to deposit waste.
Shortly, stage 1 will commence and the club will see the current golf holes seven and eight fenced off and the remodelling of the golf course begin.
These are exciting times for the club and we look forward to being able to provide the community with an 18 hole championship public course.
At this stage, it is predicted that stage 1 will only take two years, so the community club will be able to provide members and guests with two new championship holes within the next two years.
I would like to take this opportunity for thanking all members that have stayed committed to these changes and would like to apologise for the inconvenience that these changes will have over the next two years at the front of the clubhouse.
Once again thank you for your support and if you have any questions please feel free to contact myself at your earliest convenience.
Letter, Sep
Paul Alexander, Mangrove Mountain Memorial Club and Golf Course