Concerns for Ettalong's future

The Central Coast Branch of the Australian Conservation Foundation would like to convey our concerns for the future of Ettalong.

We start on the dunes that are being hacked apart for getting in the way of someone's view or are overridden with weeds and rubbish.

While applauding local residents for forming a dunecare group to start the rehabilitation process this public and prominent space requires some serious attention from our City Council.

The dunes have seen no serious effort at dune management for years.

This will be the gateway to the Peninsula if we are about to get the Fast Ferry.

What has happened to the Fast Ferry?

The Foundation is interested to know how a fast ship is going to avoid collision with marine mammals.

The damage that a propeller can do to a cruising whale was well documented last week.

What kind of damage will a high speed ferry, shaped like a knife, do to a whale?

We do hope that a better whale detection device can be found than that recommended in the applicants' first submission - that volunteers stand on the bow and keep watch for whales.

And the Ettalong Club Resort: Surely now that the club has stalled and the Carr Government Minister Refshauge has been "charged with defending the NSW coastline from ugly developments", this project must be reviewed and the comments of the NSW Coastal Council urgently requested.

The recent Urban Design Framework (UDF) undertaken by council and consultant Brett Newbold for Ettalong indicated what residents saw as a livable suburb while retaining some of the existing atmosphere of the seaside village.

Nobody taking part in the UDF process contemplated a building that was higher than the Peppers building at Terrigal but, at nine storeys high, the Ettalong Club will be.

And this is an area where there are not even three storey buildings at present.

I hope that this letter will stimulate some debate about what is sustainable development.

Can Ettalong sustain the pressure of more and more people both in the villas and units in the side streets and in high-rise on the foreshore?

John Wiggan, ACF Central Coast, Woy Woy