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 the 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 long 12 point motion was adopted after about 75 minutes of debate, points of order, procedural motions and questions.
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 to clarify responsibilities and support from the State Government.
Despite that, the 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.
Mr Farmer said that with only one day between the decision and the meeting, not much would happen before the 9am meeting with the State MPs.
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 for emergency coastal protection work.
The CEO 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 McKinaa, who chaired the meeting, asking for silence at least once.
All the procedural decisions and the main decision made at the meeting fell 8-7 or 7- 8 as has become common for all contentious issues.
The eight are made up of Liberal and Team Central Coast councillors and the seven are Labor and two independents.
Labor’s Belinda Neal put up an amendment to wait until after Thursday’s meeting before any decisions were made but Councillor Neal didn’t get the numbers.
Councillor Corinne Lamont wanted a way to give the public information about the legal advice that council had been given on the issue.
Councillor Jane 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 2.5hr briefing on Monday night.
Staff attending the Tuesday meeting included three staffers, one if them a solicitor, from Council’s Governance Unit.
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 stated.
“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.”
