Coastal and property protection must be examined
Council is calling on the State Government to review all alternatives to controversial seawalls on the Northern Beaches.
At a meeting on 28 November, councillors discussed a motion proposed by Pittwater ward’s Miranda Korzy calling for a moratorium on vertical seawalls.
The motion comes following recent controversy over the use of concrete seawalls for coastal protection in Collaroy and Narrabeen.
Councillor Vincent De Luca moved an amendment to Ms Korzy’s motion, proposing that council call upon the NSW Government to review alternative options to seawalls to ensure effective property, coastal and environmental protection.
Cr De Luca also proposed that the government review the ‘efficacy’ of the 2016 Coastal Management Act and associated plans to ensure they ‘are keeping in line with sound planning, environmental and community expectations’.
Mr De Luca’s amendment was passed unanimously.
With only fellow Greens councillor Kristyn Glanville supporting her moratorium motion, Ms Korzy said she was ‘extremely disappointed by the outcome’.
“The motion was calling for the council to actually stop and take stock of what we are doing,” Ms Korzy said. “We are looking at significant sea level rise along the beaches. And we’ve basically done exactly what the State Government’s done, in (saying) that it’s all too hard and we’re not going to bother thinking about it.”
Ms Korzy believes that councils need more guidance on coastal protection.
“There are no government benchmarks,” she said. “Previous Labor governments had put some benchmarks up, but the Coalition got rid of them.”
Seawalls have sparked anger from many residents for two decades on the Beaches. In 2002, 3,000 people protested against a proposed seawall in Collaroy, which was not built.
Subsequently, in 2019 and 2020, two seawalls were approved and later erected. Residents were asked to contribute costs, and these are located in Collaroy/South Narrabeen. In September this year, another seawall was approved for Collaroy by the local planning panel, despite 173 submissions against the proposal.
A proposal for a seawall outside the Newport Surf Life Saving Club was deferred in May 2023 to ‘enable further consideration of complex statutory and policy requirements’. It is currently open for public comment until 17 January, 2024.