Slightly more than two-thirds of the Central Coast population is overweight or obese and insufficiently active.
Trends over recent years show little improvement, according to a Central Coast Council draft strategy on the need for public space.
However, some of us run, walk, cycle, some of us walk our dogs, some of us take exercise classes in parks, and some of us need our parks for relief from the urban heat sinks, so public open space is important to us.
Ensuring that the population has access to opportunities for physical activity will improve the overall health of the Central Coast population, the draft Open Space Planning Strategy claims.
Recommended benchmarks are 3.1ha per 1,000 population for open space, comprising 1.3ha/1,000 for sport and 1.8ha/1,000 for parks/recreation.
The Coast is slightly behind the benchmark for sport at 1.12ha /1,000 and slightly above the benchmark for Recreation Parks (includes foreshores, parks and linear open space) 1.83h/1,000.
But not all suburbs are well served.
Narara Valley and Ourimbah are at the bottom with 2.10ha/1,000 residents.
The Woy Woy Peninsula, East Brisbane Water, Wyong, Warnervale and Gorokan are all below the benchmark.
With 647.59ha for open space, almost 25 per cent of that being foreshore, and 397.98ha for sport, there is a total of 1,045ha open space on the Coast.
The total doesn’t include Central Coast stadium which isn’t open to the public and nor does it count an additional 205.3ha of public land contained within golf courses.
The Strategy states that over recent years in a number of urban areas in Australia, the use of public land for golf courses has been reviewed in the light of increasing demand for open space and declining land availability.
“Responses include redevelopment to recreation park; increasing public access for non golf use, increasing multiple use through scheduling and reduction in size of course/number of holes to increase multiple uses of the land,” the Strategy states.
The draft Strategy has identified 22 sites or parks that are smaller than 1,000sqm and have been identified as non-conforming to a minimum functional area assessment and their long-term value will be investigated and a future use determined.
“It may be that some of these sites could be improved/expanded to help address deficits where they are located in an area of low supply,” the report stated.
The Strategy estimates that by 2031 the Coast will be in open space deficit by more than 140ha.
By 2046, the population is expected to increase by more than 64,000 residents.
The majority of future growth will occur in the northern part of the Central Coast Council area around Warnervale-Wadalba and Lake Munmorah-Chain Valley Bay areas.
Over two-thirds (68 per cent) of projected population growth to 2031 will occur in the two northern planning areas of Wyong-Warnervale-Gorokan and Northern Lakes-San Remo-Budgewoi.
The Coast already is above the NSW average for seniors by three per cent at 13.2 per cent of the population and significant growth is expected with the 65-plus age cohort accounting for about 40 per cent of the growth to 2036.
The Strategy is a set of guiding principles that will be used to source suitable land for sport and recreation on the Central Coast based on the population growth.
This land can be donated, conditioned on development, purchased using developer contributions or through general revenue.
Research for the development of the Open Space Strategy was undertaken by Otium Planning Group in 2020, 2021 and 2022 with a draft report provided to Council in late 2022.
Key council staff undertook further review of the draft Open Space Strategy during 2023, with the final document now ready for public exhibition after a decision by Administrator Rik Hart at the July council meeting.
Merilyn Vale