Winney Bay Clifftop Walk funding: 5 Lands Walk urge council to take the money
One of the Central Coast’s largest event organisers has pleaded for Central Coast Council to accept the $4.6 million funding for the Winney Bay Clifftop Walk.
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The 5 Lands Walk committee is getting behind the last push for Central Coast Council to take the $4.6 million funding for the Winney Bay Cliff Top Walk project.
5 Lands Walk Inc President Con Ryan said council needed to accept the funding for the benefit of the community, while 5 Lands Walk co-founder and committee member Kevin Duncan said people needed to remember the funding is to “enhance the environmental space”.
Last week, Terrigal state Liberal MP Adam Crouch announced that council had exactly 21 days to accept the money before it is off the table.
Infrastructure NSW has told council it has one last opportunity to take the funding for the project which includes a concrete path, wheelchair access, a bridge joining Captain Cook lookout to a new lookout and a cantilevered viewing platform.
Mr Duncan said Winney Bay had become a contentious issue, and the environmental space needed to be “cleansed and healed”.
“The area is not pristine land; it has asbestos issues from a house that was built there in the past and the whole vegetation of the land is foreign in itself,” he said.
“People have been given the wrong impression of the land and what the proposed clean up is which are plans to bring the land back to its original environmental state. Petty individual differences and politics need to be sidelined for a mature decision to be made for the community over all.”
5 Lands Walk land leader and artistic director Sandy Bigara said not accepting the money would be an “astounding loss”.
“As a person with physical disabilities, this project has an importance that reaches beyond the fact that people like me will be able to participate in the walk,” she said.
“To see the view, hear the stories, experience the emotion and feel the connection to the land that we call home,” she said.
“I cannot fail to see the benefit of the incredible plan to uplift and restore the Winney Bay Walk to it’s natural state — indigenous plant life which would encourage birds, insects and animal life back into the space; create a safe a secure walking track for locals and international visitors to enjoy away from the roadside; to highlight and bring attention to the cultural significance of the track, with a culturally sensitive lookout that will generate conversation and enlighten walkers to the diversity and heritage of the space; to create a walkway that would leave the plant life untouched and preserved on either side.
“Why is council not able to recognise the chance of a lifetime that we’ve been given here?”
Mr Ryan said if council accepted the $4.6 million to finish the Clifftop Walk, it would eliminate the need for pedestrians on the 5 Lands Walk to use the road route Del Monte Place to Del Monte Reserve.
“The effect, together with the 2 metre wide pathway, will be to take pedestrians off the streets
altogether during the 5 Lands Walk,” he said.
“Not only will this improve road safety it will eliminate the need for special traffic arrangements on the day of the event, and therefore significantly reduce disruption to the residents of Del Monte Place and the connecting streets.
For the benefit of the whole community, 5 Lands Walk Inc encourages Central Coast Council to accept the $4.6 million on offer, upgrade Del Monte Place and complete the construction of the Clifftop Walk.