An official e-petition to stop the proposed Wamberal Beach seawall has gone live.
Terrigal resident Abigail Boyd MLC has followed the seawall issue for years, raising concerns about end effects undermining the beach and flooding hundreds of lagoon homes and the environs.
Standing with the Wamberal Save Our Sands (SOS) group and thousands of residents who oppose the seawall, Boyd will speak to the petition in parliament where the matter will be debated on the floor.
The petition calls on the NSW Government to halt Wamberal Beach seawall actions until an independent EIS (Environmental Impact Assessment) investigates possible lagoon flooding which residents say the seawall’s end effects would cause.
“No such study has ever been conducted and locals, especially at-risk lagoon residents, are furious that they have been overlooked by Central Coast Council,” an SOS spokesperson said.
The petition also calls for a review of how Council arrived at the current situation and aims to prevent the transfer of Wamberal Beach public land to Council.
It insists that Council properly consults with the community and experts regarding alternative adaptive strategies to sustainably manage the beach and lagoon environments.
“Council’s last ‘public consultation’ was a farce, excluding non-wall options,” the spokesperson said.
The petition will be online for three weeks.
“We are grateful that Abigail Boyd has shown leadership on this important issue that concerns so many locals and threatens the coast we love,” the spokesperson said.
“We encourage everyone to sign the e-petition.
“We hope to secure thousands of signatures to send a message to Parliament and Council that the Wamberal Beach seawall is not on.”
Boyd has long championed the opposition viewpoint.
On September 17, 2020, she told parliament: “The Wamberal Beach Management Options report, prepared for the Office of Environment and Heritage in 2017, considered a cost-benefit analysis for eight options at Wamberal. It found that none of the engineering options, including different types of seawalls, with or without beach enrichment, would provide a net public benefit for the local community and visitors.”
SOS volunteers met briefly with Council Administrator Rik Hart at Ourimbah last week to outline their concerns.
Delegates put it to Hart that if the seawall went ahead and hundreds of lagoon homes were flooded as a result, Council would be held liable and would have no defence if it was found not to have acted in good faith, for example, if Council repeatedly refused to properly study seawall impacts on the lagoons before preparing a development application (DA).
They reminded Hart that studies and experts, including Sydney beach expert Professor Andrew Short, have signalled to Council the need to investigate seawall flanking of the lagoons, in addition to pressing concerns about a seawall’s threat to the sustainability of the beach itself.
“Mr Hart listened to the SOS delegates and said he was acting on the advice of experts at Council and suggested that SOS delegates meet again with Council Director Environment and Planning Dr Alice Howe to further discuss the concerns,” the spokesperson said.
“We welcome Mr Hart’s invitation to meet Dr Howe.
“However, Member for Terrigal Adam Crouch wrote to Dr Howe about our concerns and Dr Howe’s reply entirely sidestepped the pressing issue of seawall end effects driving increased flooding of the two lagoon neighbourhoods.
“Her reply made it clear that Council has no intention of studying seawall flooding impacts on the lagoons before lodging a seawall DA.
“Council is bulldozing.
“It is incredible that the community has no alternative but to take the matter to NSW Parliament because Council is willfully ignoring the proposed wall’s impacts on hundreds of lagoon properties and the environs.
“Council is relying on studies that specifically limit their scope to the 1500 metres of beach between the lagoons, excluding the vast lagoons that sit behind.”
You can sign the petition at https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lc/pages/epetition-details.aspx?q=MPUp8pTH35wC7Gy236QxIw
It will remain live until August 31.
SOS will continue to update the community on its Facebook page.
Source:
Wamberal Save Our Sands
I am concerned that council has not looked at anything other than a Seawall. I live opposite wamberal lagoon & would like council to look at other alternatives before lodging a DA
The link to the petition is not active
Thank you Wendy, it is active now 🙂