Support tourism, Chamber urges

Peninsula Chamber of Commerce president Mr Matthew Wales has urged both Gosford Council and the State Government to "get serious" about dredging the entrance to Brisbane Water and to support Ettalong Beach as a tourist destination.

"The delay by council, in advancing the works in line with the previous funding commitments given by the State Government, is symptomatic of Gosford Council's attitude to the Peninsula and Ettalong Beach in particular," Mr Wales said.

"It has been a constant source of frustration by the local business community that council reacts to crisis, rather than being proactive towards key issues.

"It is clear that council does not have a long-term vision for the Peninsula particularly when it comes to the foreshore upgrade at Ettalong Beach which the chamber initiated in 1998.

"It has taken 10 years to simply have the Foreshore Management Plan adopted and the limited works that have been undertaken to date."

Mr Wales said in 1999 the Central Coast Area Consultative Committee provided federal funding to the then Central Coast Business Forum to prepare the Tourism Infrastructure Analysis Central Coast Region authored by Alan Nordsvan and Associates.

He said the comprehensive report was a detailed analysis on prime tourist destinations, which identified Ettalong Beach as one of the two premier tourist nodes in the Gosford LGA, the other being Terrigal.

"Even though this was a widely recognised fact, one that Gosford Council has supported, little if any funds have been directed to developing the required infrastructure to make this a reality," Mr Wales said.

"Council's general attitude has been to throw little bits of money at the Peninsula to keep the locals quiet, but fail to come up with a comprehensive long-term strategy to create a tourist destination.

"The recent exchange of words over the channel dredging is further evidence of the lack of commitment by the council to get serious about the issue."

Mr Wales said that in 2001 the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce spent $100,000 preparing the Peninsula Vision document together with council, State Government and Federal Government, each contributing $25,000.

According to Mr Wales, the Peninsula Vision developed a range of strategies dealing with economic growth, pilot programs for town revitalisation, tourism marketing strategies and a Place Management System tied to a business levy.

"While council adopted the Peninsula Vision document, it again failed to implement the recommendations when the business levy fell over," Mr Wales said.

"Despite council's assurances at the time that the Vision would not be left on a shelf to gather dust, that's exactly where it is today.

"The time really has come to stop applying cosmetics to the problem and to develop a comprehensive program for tourism on the Peninsula that is backed by real dollars."

Press release, 7 Aug 2008 Matthew Wales, Peninsula Chamber of Commerce