The creation of a new community group in Pearl Beach is on the cards following calls for residents to receive information relating to the area’s natural and built environment.
Residents of Pearl Beach are being invited to a community meeting on February 20 to discuss the potential of a Pearl Beach Village Environment Group.
Secretary of the Pearl Beach Arboretum, Mary Knaggs, is set to convene the preliminary meeting, but said she wished to not be the convener of the ongoing group.
“There has been talk for some time about reinstating a Pearl Beach Environment Group made up of interested residents and friends of Pearl Beach,” Knaggs said.
“Therefore, it is planned to hold a community meeting to discuss what the group may look like.
“Such a group can only exist if there is substantial community support.”
The group is set to discuss and monitor development applications, promote a “sympathetic built and natural environment” throughout Pearl Beach, hold workshops about conserving flora and fauna, and review and republish the 2009 Pearl Beach Environment Guide.
Knaggs said the group is hoping to appoint a convener for the meetings, and someone to record minutes.
The group also wishes to attract residents with expertise in urban planning and conservation of the natural environment.
The Executive Committee of the Pearl Beach Progress Association (PBPA) provided its support for a new group at their meeting on November 19.
The minutes state: “That the Executive Committee support the establishment of a Pearl Beach Environment Group with open participation and input from all residents and other Pearl Beach groups such as the Arboretum, Bushcare and Dunecare to provide information and education in relation to the Pearl Beach natural and built environment.”
The PBPA has also offered to promote the new group through its website and the quarterly Gem Newsletter but will not support the idea of an environment group as a sub-committee of the Association.
The community meeting will be held on Saturday, February 20, in the Pearl Beach Memorial Hall from 5pm-6:30pm.
Speakers are being asked to bring their ideas to the meeting for a two-minute speech and a two-minute question and answer session.
Organisers are asking for residents to RSVP by 5pm on February 18, by emailing mary.knaggs@gmail.com
Maisy Rae