Manly Life Saving Club: Locals fight plan for big, costly and ‘ugly’ redevelopment
Plans to bulldoze a famed Sydney surf lifesaving clubhouse and replace it with a bigger ‘uglier’ version, have sparked a wave of protests.
Manly
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Community backlash has erupted over plans to demolish a famed surf life saving club on the northern beaches and replace it with a new, bigger and “ugly” $15 million facility.
Locals are urging authorities not to press ahead with the proposed bulldozing of the increasingly dilapidated Manly Life Saving Club.
They say the proposed new clubhouse is “ugly” and an “overdevelopment” that restricts access to the path to Shelly Beach and blocks residents’ views at the southern end of Manly Beach.
Others believe the existing club building should be kept and given a makeover instead.
The club, established in 1911, leases the current 42-year-old building from Northern Beaches Council, but said it was falling into disrepair and running out of room to store its surf rescue craft.
Since 2018, the council has talked abut providing a new purpose-built facility to “support the needs of the 3.5 million people who visit Manly Beach each year”.
But the proposal, which includes new public change rooms and toilets, has struggled with funding issues with only $11m in funding secured, so far. The council and the federal government have each promised $5m with another $1m possibly coming from the state government.
This week the council released updated concept designs for the new clubhouse and public amenities, which it said would improve “public thoroughfare” at the Marine Pde path to Shelly Beach.
It would also provide more storage space and give council lifeguards direct line of sight to the beach and access to drones and more training facilities for volunteer lifesaver training, the council said in a statement released this week.
The council stated that renovating the existing building “would be more costly and less effective” due to its location close to a large sewer easement.
“The result is an innovative design, which replicates as much as possible the existing footprint … and only expanding by approximately 10 per cent,” the council stated.
Mayor Sue Heins said recently that with an increase in club members and volunteers – particularly female – “not to mention the massive increase in tourism to Manly Beach, we need a practical, better life saving club befitting this stunning location”.
At Tuesday night’s council meeting, Manly locals spoke about concerns with the size of the and design of the new clubhouse.
Laura Dodds-Hebron, who helped organise an information forum for residents and beachgoers, told the meeting that people told her they did not “realise that the club would be so big”.
“A lot of people asked why is it so big when all we need is well designed space for our lifeguards and better toilets and changing rooms,” she said.
“Many voiced their disapproval around the design, saying it looked ugly and more like a concrete bunker.”
Manly local Jeremy Cooper said there was no point on spending money on a project that was “simply too big and too expensive” and that a refurbishment of the current building was the solution.
Mr Cooper said consultants had previously advised the council that a renovation was possible and that it was a “good building” and, with proper maintenance, would last for 80 years.
Pam Naylor, a resident representative on a council working group for the project who described the plan as “overdevelopment”, said residents feared their beach views would be blocked.
“Our local residents are becoming very distressed about losing something that’s so precious to them,” she said.
The council said it was finalising the design and preparing documents to submit a development application later this year. The design will be open for public submissions.
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