Central Coast Council will consider a recommendation from the Coastal Open Spaces System (COSS) advisory committee regarding the off-leash dog area at Pippi Point, Davistown, despite the efforts of a community group to have it discounted.
The advisory committee has asked Council to consider a number of recommendations including the decommissioning of the Illoura Reserve as an off-leash dog area in its role as the designated advisory committee on all matters relating to strategic biodiversity conservation land management for the region.
The recommendations were made in response to the revised draft Dogs in Open Space Action Plan, which was on public submission until September 30.
The committee noted that the area had been identified as a threatened species habitat for the Eastern Curlew, Bush Stone Curlew, Pied Oystercatcher, Bar Tailed Godwit and Grey Headed Flying Fox.
It said decommissioning was recommended because dog behaviour within the off-leash dog exercise area “will impact on foraging time or foraging efficiency of shorebirds including these threatened species whilst also potentially impacting breeding cycles”.
But Central Coast Beach Access Reform Coalition (CCBARC), a not-for-profit organisation representing dog owners, said the committee’s recommendations should have been struck off the October 31 meeting agenda.
CCBARC says the COSS advisory committee has no grounds for even considering the issue of the Davistown off-leash area (OLA).
It says Pippi Point OLA has not been identified as a threatened species habitat, let alone for the species listed.
“The evidence for this is in the actual content of all five ecological reports done on Pippi Point since 2010, as well as for records going back 46 years,” CCBARC said in a letter to Council prior to the meeting.
It also disputes that the area is a foraging, roosting or nesting habitat.
“The Eastern Curlew and Bar Tailed Godwit are both migratory birds that visit for only a portion of each year and, together with local Pied Oyerstercatchers, forage on mudflats only at low tide,” the letter said.
“The mudflats are out on the water.
“The OLA is on land; the two do not mix.
“They do not forage in the OLA.
“Even Bush Stone-curlews are not recorded as naturally foraging in the OLA.
“In fact, they should not forage in the OLA because Council sprays it with the toxic herbicide, Stadium Tur.
“(They) occasionally forage at night near the Lintern St Wharf about 400-500m away from the OLA.
“Dogs are not exercised at night as there is no artificial lighting.”
The letter said the Grey Headed Flying Fox was simply recorded as flying overhead.
The COSS committee’s recommendations were made following its September meeting where members listened to a presentation from a Council staffer.
The Chair asked for confirmation on the vulnerable species referenced in the presentation and whether or not they were directly observed or was it just that the potential habitat was identified.
The Minutes of the meeting show Council staff confirmed that they were observed in the 2023 study area.
CCBARC contends that maps of the observed species show they are not in the OLA.
It asked Administrator Rik Hart to recognise that the advisory committee had no grounds for making its recommendations.
But Hart told the Council meeting that committees make recommendations only, and the COSS advisory committee submission would be considered along with all others.
Director Alice Howe confirmed the committee has the right to make a submission.
CCBARC created a petition to save Pippi Park for the dog owners in the area who use it as a beloved off-leash area, with Federal Member for Robertson Gordon Reid speaking about the issue in Parliament on October 18.
“Since the petition was created on change.org on July 4, it has received 3,309 signatures to date – an impressive feat,” he said.
“I would like to acknowledge the work of Johny Row and the Save Pippi Point team who are: Jenny McCulla, Rosalind Bonser, Trish Bourke, Rachel Robertson, Charmaine Bright, Brett Sims, Paula Baxter, Vibi Mitchell and Monique Roy.”
He thanked them for their invaluable work for the community, organising the petition and enabling the community’s voice to be heard and assisting people to make a submission during the consultation process.
“The Save Pippi Point team also fundraised to commission an independent review, by an environmental consultant, of the environmental assessment that was used by Council when developing this new strategy,” Reid said.
” I commend the Save Pippi Point campaign’s advocacy on behalf of their community and I encourage, and I say it again, I encourage the Central Coast Council administration to work with the Davistown community to reach the best outcome for all.”
Merilyn Vale
leave the dog park as is