Long Beach vehicle access decision delayed as council seeks costs

Councillors’ concerns have led them to postpone a decision on vehicle access to a Capricorn Coast beach after hundreds of people expressed their support for it.

A decision on whether to possibly change Local Laws to allow vehicles to drive on Long Beach, in the Livingstone Shire area, has been delayed.

Livingstone Shire councillors have left open the question over whether to change local laws to allow vehicle access to Long Beach, pending a briefing session on costs.

The issue of vehicle access was brought up in a July Livingstone Shire Council meeting, with councillors given the option to start to change local laws to allow vehicles to use Long Beach or to keep the status quo.

Currently Farnborough Beach North (Hinz Ave) is the only beach in Livingstone where driving without launching, retrieving, or supplying a vessel is permitted.

Community members were asked whether they “support changes to the Local Law to allow driving on the following beaches?” in a recent review.

Council documents indicated that 258 people of the 499 people who responded to the question supported driving on Long Beach while 213 respondents do not support driving on any of the beaches.

The recommendation by council officers at the July meeting was to not allow vehicle access to Long Beach be written into local laws.

However, Cr Andrea Friend requested more information, stating that there needed to be costings before council made a decision.

Even if councillors do approve a changes, state government and stakeholder approval will still be required before any vehicle access could be approved.

The issue of whether to allow vehicles on Livingstone Shire roads have gained publicity in recent weeks. Pic Istock

A councillor officer said they made the recommendation because of the “remoteness of the area” and “physically traversing to get onto the beach is quite difficult”.

“You’ve got to go down a dirt track which is not the best track to drive down then you’ve actually got to cross a small creek,” they said.

“At this point in time, even if we allowed driving on that beach and we created a safe lawful access to the sand edge, you then still have to navigate a number of hazards to actually get on to the beach.”

The council officer added that if council were to create an access it would most likely have to be a two lane access and that would come at considerable cost.

Asked if council could just allow access without building infrastructure to the beach, the officer said council would have a duty of care to ensure a safe access to the beach.

Ultimately, Cr Friend requested a motion for council to not make a decision prior to a briefing session to discuss costings and that the issue of Long Beach vehicle access to be pushed back to another council meeting.

“I just don’t feel we have enough information to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, other than to lay it on the table until we have some more costings,” she said.

Mayor Adam Belot, Cr Wade Rothery and Cr Rhodes Watson agreed with Cr Friend, while Cr Pat Eastwood, Cr Glenda Mather and Cr Lance Warcon voted against laying it on the table.

Originally published as Long Beach vehicle access decision delayed as council seeks costs