West Beach plans hit a wall: Group threatens legal action to halt $7.4 million coastal project
PLANS for a $7.4m coastal path project at a popular metropolitan beach have hit a rocky patch with environmental campaigners threatening legal action in a bid to stop it.
- Work to start on West Beach rock wall
- Storm damage bill put at $5m
- Carting sand will cost $1m - but it’s ‘not enough’
- Residents stop $65m coastal path plan
THE Coastal Ecology Protection Group is threatening Charles Sturt Council with legal action unless it reverses its decision to proceed with a $7.4 million West Beach rock wall and coastal path.
The environmental campaigners – which successfully overturned the council’s decision to proceed with the Tennyson coastal path in the Supreme Court last year – said the council was “making the same mistake again”.
The council should wait, the group said, until the public release of the $70,000 sand management study undertaken by environmental consultants Danish Hydraulics Institute and a groyne field proposal, currently under way by coastal ecology expert Dr Ian Dyson.
Coastal Ecology Protection Group spokeswoman Monique Webber said the decision to start work without all of the scientific evidence was “illogical” and that the council “had been consistently disappointing”.
“Their approach to environmental matters is worryingly outdated,” Ms Webber said.
“Hard structures such as a seawall reflect wave energy and exacerbate sand loss.
“CEPG ... is in constant contact with its legal team to determine the best way forward.”
At its September 10 meeting, the council voted in favour of a community land management plan for West Beach – which will be reviewed once those reports come back – so it can start construction at West Beach.
The council wants to replace the failed rock wall and build a minimum 3m-wide concrete walkway from Cottesloe St to Chetwynd St, south of the surf lifesaving clubrooms, to form part of the State Government’s coastal path.
Charles Sturt Council chief executive Paul Sutton said the council was confident that the plan addressed the key elements from the Supreme Court decision on Tennyson.
“The council endorsed the latest report on 10 September 2018 with the understanding that although there will be future studies within the area aimed at helping restore the beach, the rock wall is required regardless,” Mr Sutton said. “Our focus is on delivering the project for our community, and to remain connected with them throughout the process.”
The rock wall was originally damaged during storms in May 2015.
It was hit again with severe storms and a tidal event the following year and has been closed off ever since.