Roundabout for Ocean Beach Rd and Railway St

A roundabout at the corner of Ocean Beach Rd and Railway St may be built before a roundabout at Ocean Beach Rd and Dunban Rd, Gosford Council's meeting on June 13 was told.

Discussions were still to be held with the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) over the priority of the two projects.

Council officers reported that depending on the outcome of the discussions, funding for the Railway St roundabout may be brought forward to this year's budget and the Dunban Rd roundabout re-programmed for two years time.

Council had sent a submission to the RTA seeking black spot funding, but had not yet received a reply.

A plan and estimate was also being prepared for the construction of a single lane roundabout at the intersection of Victoria Rd and Charlton St, to include "provision for heavy vehicle turning movement", the council meeting was told.

Details of the plans were revealed in a report accompanying the Council's "City Management Plan 2000-2005", which was adopted with amendments after community consultation.

An abridged version of the plan will be sent to ratepayers with the July rates notice.

The management plan includes an interim capital works program, Council's recurrent and operational budget, state of environment report and its revenue policy.

Two public workshops were held during the public exhibition period of the draft, one of which was held at Umina.

The report listed some of the key points made at the workshops and the council officers' response:

It was requested that the strategic plan should indicate the release dates of the various sub-documents within the plan, so that it is easier for the community to relate the documents to each other.

The officers said the strategic plan would be amended to give this information.

They also said a diagram would be included to indicate the timing for community input into each of the sub-documents under the strategic plan in the next strategic plan.

Workshop participants also said the strategic plan did not indicate which items were deleted from the previous document, making it hard to see continuity between plans.

They said that heritage was an important issue for the city and should be mentioned in the plan.

Council officers said a heritage inventory was being compiled and this would be included under the development, building and customer services section of the plan.

Participants also said the State Government document, Shaping the Central Coast, which proposes a large increase in medium density for the Peninsula, contained a lot of motherhood statements without any indication to address issues of infrastructure.

Council officers said an implementation plan was being developed and infrastructure issues would be addressed in that document.

Council also received a written submission on the strategic plan from the Ettalong Ratepayers and Citizens Progress Association.

The association wanted to know if the Council's statements of intent were listed in priority order, to which officers replied they were not.

The Association said projected population figures for possible total medium density developments should be provided in the strategic plan and that medium density zonings for the Peninsula should be revised "so that future population levels will be restricted to sustainable levels".

Council officers said projected population figures would be included in the final copy of the strategic plan.

The interim capital works component of the draft strategic plan had some outstanding issues, which Council was still investigating at the time of publication.

Further community workshops will be held in September.

Other matters discussed at the Umina workshop included:

The merits of the new library slips, concerns about parking in relation to the Ettalong Fast Ferry and floodplain development.

Concerns were raised about traffic and parking for the Fast Ferry.

One participant suggested that the open area in Broken Bay Rd near the Rip Bridge could be used for multi-level parking for the ferry.

Council officers said they would consider the suggestion along with other feedback about the Fast Ferry that had been received.

Carl Spears, June 13