The Wamberal Beach Save Our Sand (SOS) group has secured upper house support in NSW Parliament for a new petition opposing a proposed seawall at the beach.
Abigail Boyd MLC is a Terrigal resident who has followed the seawall issue for years, raising concerns about seawall end effects undermining the beach and flooding hundreds of lagoon homes and the environs.
She stands with Wamberal SOS and thousands of local residents in opposition to a seawall and will speak to the petition in parliament, where the matter will be debated on the floor.
Suggestions of a seawall for the beach have divided the community since they were mooted following massive storm erosion in 2020.
The e-petition, expected to go live in coming days, will call on the NSW Government to halt the proposed seawall, insisting on an independent EIS (Environmental Impact Assessment) of the proposed seawall’s end effects on hundreds of lagoon homes and the lagoon environs.
The petition will also call for a NSW Government review of Council’s processes regarding the issue and will call on NSW Government to insist that Council properly consult the community and experts regarding alternative adaptive strategies to manage the beach and lagoon environments.
“Once the petition goes live, we will have three weeks to get as many online signatures as we can,” the group’s Facebook page says.
“Please let your family and friends know the e-petition is coming.
“Let’s get thousands of signatures and send a message to Parliament and Council that the seawall is not on.”
Concerned residents are urged to keep an eye on the Wamberal Beach Save Our Sand Facebook page for details of the petition.
Meanwhile, although Central Coast Council has set up a webpage providing some seawall updates, the group says there is still nowhere near enough information.
It has posed a series of questions to Council staff.
These include such questions as: will the five state-owned vacant blocks of land along Wamberal Beach be part of the seawall development application? will these blocks of land have a seawall constructed on or in front of them? and what arrangement as mentioned on the webpage is being negotiated between Council and the state authority regarding a seawall?
They have also asked for details on what the financial outlay that Council has contributed or will be contributing to engineers, surveyors and environment reports and for an update on any development applications regarding the issue.
The group has also asked if Council is preparing a DA for any land along Wamberal Beach and where sand for nourishment will be sourced and at what cost.
It also wants to know what actions Council has undertaken or is planning to undertake to consult hundreds of Wamberal and Terrigal lagoon neighbourhood residents who have recently expressed significant objection to the wall.
Terry Collins