Possible steps for beach protection; experts to be called in

Central Coast Council CEO David Farmer and Mayor Lawrie McKinna will meet with relevant State Government Ministers in State Parliament on Thursday, May 15, to discuss coastal erosion on the Central Coast.

The meeting was mentioned at an extraordinary Council meeting held on Tuesday, May 13, and was central to the debate on how best to deal with the coastal erosion already threatening homes at Wamberal and The Entrance North beaches.

A minority of councillors wanted to wait for the meeting before making any decisions.

The majority, however, wanted action organised to take effect if the meeting produced nothing.

A long 12 point motion was adopted after about 75 minutes of debate, points of order, procedural motions and questions.

In a nutshell it paves the way for emergency protection works to be undertaken under the Local Government Act.

CEO David Farmer said it was a very complex issue, with many aspects still to be considered, even with the motion that was passed.

“The motion includes some significant thresholds to be reached before issuing orders under Section 124, and the individual circumstances of each property and the proposed solution need to be assessed,” Farmer said.

“Additionally, the combined impact of works in a location needs to be assessed before giving any orders.

“Council will ensure expert advice is considered before taking any action.”

Wamberal Protection Association president Chris Rogers said immediately after the meeting that it was the right decision for the safety of the whole community.

But the decision doesn’t allow any emergency works to proceed just yet.

There is a process to follow.

First, Council will wait until the meeting on Thursday before acting on the adopted motion so it can pursue a unified response and clarify responsibilities and support from the State Government.

Despite that, CEO David Farmer has been given the direction to “immediately” commence engagement of suitably qualified professional experts including a structural engineer and a coastal engineer.

Farmer said not much would happen before the 9am meeting on Thursday.

The suitably qualified experts, once engaged, will undertake assessments of impacted properties and identify any that may be subject to imminent structural failure or pose risk to human life now or in the event of further coastal erosion.

These experts will recommend any temporary emergency protection works.

Then the CEO will consider giving “appropriate orders” under a section of the Local Government Act (s124) for emergency coastal protection work.

But those works would only be ordered if a series of conditions were met, including that the proposed works were in accordance with expert advice and not likely to adversely impact other properties.

Also included in the conditions were some legal parameters such as “Where the proposed works extend to other land that is not the subject of an associated s124 notice, the owner of the other land has provided an irrevocable authority in writing to the owner of the property to be protected to carry out the proposed works on the other land”. 

Farmer made it clear during the meeting that the work on private property would be done at the cost of the landowners.

The gallery included rowdy supporters of the WPA and Wamberal Save Our Sand (SOS).

When one group applauded a councillor comment or speech, the other side was quiet and visa versa.

Some residents were quite vocal in giving councillors unsolicited advice with Mayor Lawrie McKinna, who chaired the meeting, asking for silence at least once.

All the procedural votes and the main decision at the meeting fell 8-7 or 7- 8 as has become common for most contentious issues faced by this Council since the 15 councillors were elected in September 2024..

The eight are made up of Liberal and Team Central Coast councillors and the seven are Labor councillors and two independents.

Labor’s Councillor Belinda Neal put up an amendment to wait until after Thursday’s meeting before any decisions were made but she didn’t get the numbers.

Councillor Jane Smith talked about the cost of paying the experts who would do the assessing.

The money will come from the CEO’s special projects budget, referred to by Smith as the CEO “slush fund” before she corrected herself.

The Council agreed that up to $50,000 could be spent from the $95,000 in the fund.

Councillor Corinne Lamont wanted a way to give the public some information about the legal advice Council had been given on the issue.

Smith said the motion flew in the face of good advice that had been provided to councillors.

It was revealed during the meeting that councillors had attended a two and a half hour briefing on Monday night.

Staff attending the Tuesday meeting included three from Council’s Governance Unit, one if them a solicitor.

In speaking to the motion before the final vote was taken, Councillor Trent McWaide said it was about safety and he mentioned the “clear and imminent threat” coming.

He was referring to information in the report tabled at the meeting.

“The current predictions indicate that the highest tides of the year will occur from 25 – 29 May 2025,” the report said.

“If these high tides correspond with large easterly swells, there may be a significant risk to coastal erosion areas considering the current vulnerable state of these locations.

“Swell forecasts will be monitored over the coming months to assess the risk of erosion impacts on the Central Coast beaches.”

The extraordinary meeting followed one the previous Tuesday, May 6, where the councillors called on the NSW Premier to call a state of emergency for all Central Coast beaches.

Merilyn Vale