The May 27 meeting includes the MacMasters Beach Temporary Coastal Protection Works.
The Environment and Planning Committee has recommended that Council;
1/ Notes the results of the community consultation (the majority didn’t want the protection works) but
2/ Requests the CEO include an action in the draft Open Coast Coastal Management Program for the construction of the temporary coastal protection works as designed.
3/ It wants the project put into the Council’s capital works program for 2025-26 and taken out of this year’s capital works program.
3/ If the above gets adopted tomorrow night, staff will advise the NSW Coastal and Estuary Grants Branch that the project will proceed to construction and seek an extension to the grant completion date.
4/ The recommendation includes an action being included in the Open Coast Coastal Management Program to complete a coastal risk and options assessment for Marine Parade at MacMasters Beach.
Community engagement undertaken late last year revealed 58% (159 respondents) did not support the plans for temporary coastal protection works, 34% (95 respondents) supported the works, and 8% (21 respondents) were unsure or preferred not to say.
“Respondents unsupportive of the works were mostly concerned about the potential impacts to surf amenity, natural coastal processes and/or the environment or noted a preference for the relocation of the Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC),” a council report states.
“Respondents supportive of the works indicated that ‘something needs to be done’, that the SLSC is at risk and needs to be protected, provided support for the design, or identified the community benefit and importance of the SLSC to the local community.”
Council has a State Government grant to assist with the work.
Council’s committee dealt with the issue earlier this month.
Council staff had recommended that: “construction of the temporary coastal protection works be deferred, and an appropriate action be included for further community consultation and consideration through the Open Coast Coastal Management Program (CMP)”.
The proposed temporary work was a 80-metre-long structure of 4 tonne rock bags.
The report to the committee said that current coastal hazard mapping indicated that the MacMasters Beach Surf Life Saving Club and Marine Parade was currently at risk from coastal erosion and recession and that this risk will increase into the future.
The surf club is privately owned by the club on land leased directly from Crown Lands.
In 2016, the site was impacted by coastal erosion and the SLSC put sand and cement filled bulka bags in a small section of embankment seaward of the club.
The report listed contentious issues with the project and spelt out risks for both deferring and going ahead with the works.
Deferring would see the club continue to be at risk from coastal erosion and recession and the Norfolk Island pines and deteriorating bulka bags may represent a public safety risk, the report states.
If the project went ahead, Council listed an increased risk of vandalism and damage to the rock bags associated with the high level of community opposition.
It also said that even with protection works in front of the surf club, the road used to access it would remain under threat with the risk that the club could be isolated and inaccessible.
The May 27 council meeting starts at 6.30pm after the public forum at 6pm.
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