Rejection Of Proposed Walkway Around Terrigal Lagoon
Letter
Dear Messrs. Farmer and Tarasenko,
I want Central Coast Council (CCC) to reject the current proposal (Option 3) to build a walkway around Terrigal Lagoon, DA62171/2021.
Firstly, I note that the link provided on the Your Voice Our Coast – Terrigal Walking Trail website to make an online submission does not work. Secondly, that CCC is asking for community input without providing access to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is poor practice at best, and obstructionist at worst.
Substantively, the Your Voice Our Coast – Terrigal Walking Trail states in the FAQ’s:
“What is the trail going to be built out of?
The construction materials for the trail will be influenced by the feedback from the community and the recommendations of the environmental impact statement, however natural and recycled materials are likely to be the main focus of the design.”
This is a completely disingenuous obfuscation of fact and survey data. The currently proposed model states that the track is to be made of concrete for 63% of it’s length. This is despite over 29% of respondents to the initial community consultation for this project regarding natural pathways as VERY IMPORTANT. That concrete is now proposed as the track composition for 730 m of this walkway appears to have only been adopted for economic and political reasons. If CCC cannot afford to build this track with no or minimal environmental impact DO NOT build it at all. Stimulating job creation for the sake of the local economy during a time of economic downturn is no justification to destroy a natural masterpiece.
In ecological terms, the majority of the concrete is being laid through the survey polygons of the EIS containing both Melaleuca biconvexa, a vulnerable species under the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act (BC) and federal Environmental Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) and Myotis macropus which is vulnerable under the BC. Furthermore, the plant community PCT 1727 within Option 3 proposal contains 1.9ha of Swamp Oak – Sea Rush – Baumea juncea swamp forest on the Central Coast and Lower North Coast, a threatened community under BC; with some sections comprising part of the Coastal Swamp Oak (Casuarina glauca) Forest of New South Wales and South East Queensland ecological community, the federally listed counterpart under the EPBC. These ecosystems will be destroyed or seriously degraded through fragmentation from clearing and placement of this impermeable barrier around the Northern side of Terrigal Lagoon.
The justification for the initial proposal to provide an interpretive resource for the CEN Marine Discovery Centre is completely self-defeating in that, should this project be approved, it will destroy or seriously degrade the very asset that CEN wishes to showcase. Reject the proposal for Option 3 until it can be proven and verified that no M. biconvexa or M. macropus will be taken or damaged and that vegetation community PCT1727 is left untouched by moving the walkway and using natural materials as requested in your earlier community consultation.
Yours greenly,
D Williamson
