The case of the disappearing stairs leading to a popular Bateau Bay reserve has infuriated residents who are demanding Central Coast Council reinstate the stairs it took away.
The reserve, located between Blue Lagoon Caravan Park and Shelly Beach, was accessed via a staircase from Bateau Bay Rd.
Recently, members of the local Landcare group which had been working for years on clearing noxious weed to form a community path from Blue Lagoon to Shelly Beach were stunned to find the stairs to the reserve were missing.
Coordinator of the Save Our Stairs Group Judy Townsend said the reserve was extremely popular and used for birthday parties, weddings, family reunions and end of year sports days.
But, despite boasting well-maintained toilets and barbecues, without stairs the community cannot access the reserve unless people walk through the caravan park, onto the beach and across to the reserve.
Townsend said the stairs were built in 1979 as a gift to the community from the caravan park in an agreement with Crown Land.
She believes following the recent discovery that the agreement was now invalid, and that Council was responsible for the maintenance of the stairs, a decision was made to remove them.
“We wonder at the haste of the decision once Crown Land informed Council that the previous agreement with the caravan park was invalid,” Townsend said.
She said Council also showed no local knowledge of the area in classifying the stairs as “beach access” which would require highly engineered stairs.
“These stairs clearly are not affected by tide, king tide, beach erosion – they are on grass and about 150m from the beach,” she said.
“There is a set of stairs on the eastern side of the reserve that fits that description, perhaps that’s where the confusion began.
“We think it is readily achievable to rebuild a set of stairs that will easily last 40 years as the recently removed stairs have done.”
She said the group was hoping funding for the stairs would be included in the 2024/25 Open Spaces budget.
Residents were also offended by the lack of community consultation and were told that Council provided notification of the demolition works on its social media page.
“It’s certainly an inadequate response and quite condescending at best,” Townsend said.
She said residents were also mystified by the Council’s statement that there were other beach access points.
“Our concern is the complete lack of easy access to our reserve,” she said.
“Why was there no mention of any attempt by the Council to repair the stairs while a plan of replacement was put in place?”
Member for The Entrance David Mehan described the Council’s decision as “sneaky” and “a huge disappointment”.
“My community has put in a huge effort to repair and rejuvenate the area around Shelly Beach and Bateau Bay,” he said.
“Council’s decision not to consult the community before the steps were removed is very disrespectful.
“Nobody believes Council’s claim that the steps were unsafe; they needed maintenance, not removal.
“I’ll now work with my community to improve access to the reserve and ensure it is properly maintained.”
A Central Coast Council spokesperson confirmed the stairs were removed in early September.
She said an inspection revealed the timber stairs were unsafe and beyond repair due to vandalism and had been set on fire on two occasions.
“Unfortunately, no other options were available other than removal of the stairs, as they were no longer functional or safe,” she said.
“Council had provided notification of the demolition works on Council’s social media channels and liaised with the neighbouring tourist park and noted the other beach access locations to the north and the south of the stairs.
“In response to local community concerns about future public access, Council staff will consider the merits of building a new stairway at this location in the future, which will include community consultation.
“This project is not currently listed in Council’s 3-year Delivery Program and so there is currently no funding budgeted to commence design and construction of new stairs.
“Council will however investigate if any government grant funding might be available for this proposed project.”
Denice Barnes
Central Coast Council are preventing the public who own the Reserve from accessing it. Will people now use a dangerous steep track subject to erosion where the stairs were? The council are public servants employed by the people in control of this Crown Land Reserve which is owned by the people.
what about the stairs to soldiers and Jenny Dixon beach,it has been years waiting
Council need to get their act together and serve the local community as they are supposed to do. Find out where all our money disappeared to and install some stairs like the ones at North Shelley. They will last forever.
Maybe if the local vandels stopped burning them down they would still be there.
They have been rebuilt 3 times by the Caravan park at their own cost.
Jezz i think other things need to be fixed before the stairs , like the roads to get to the stairs