Residents Battle Council over Right to Defend Properties

Residents of Wamberal Beach in the Central Coast region have suffered another setback in their ongoing battle to be permitted to build a new revetment wall to protect their properties, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The six residents live in properties right on the beach front. They came close to losing their homes when a super storm hit the area in June last year, and experts have acknowledged that their homes are at risk of being swept away should another similar size storm hit them again.

The residents submitted a development application to build a 100-metre defensive wall at a cost of $3 million – a cost that they propose to meet themselves. However, their application was opposed by the Office of Environment and Heritage’s Coastal Panel, which has now successful blocked the application in the NSW Land and Environment Court.

The NSW Coastal Panel is a statutory authority that was established under the Coastal Protection Act 1979. Its membership includes local government and public authority nominees, who act in an advisory role to local councils and the Minister administering the Act. The panel can also get involved in reviewing draft coastal zone management plans.

The residents of Wamberal Beach have been told they will now have to submit another development application to Central Coast Council, which is apparently the new consent authority for these applications.

The residents are furious because they have already spent around $350,000 in trying to get their original application approved. They believe they have been treated unfairly, because residents of Collaroy in northern Sydney, whose properties were also threatened by the June 2016 storm, have been allowed to build defences at their own expense.

“I say again: we don’t want any money from the government or council,” said one of residents, speaking to the Daily Telegraph. “We just want to protect our homes and our loved ones. It’s not asking too much, is it?”

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