Environment group decides 'priority actions'
The Pearl Beach Environment Group has announced its priority actions, following its recent formation.
They include environmental education and making submissions on government policies and strategies as well as individual development applications.
Group convenor Ms Mary Knaggs said the group's activities would include community environment conservation education and awareness-raising through publication and events.
She said that, representing its members, the group would lobby and make submissions about relevant local government and government. policies and strategies and about the implementation of those policies and strategies.
It would also make submissions on selected individual development proposals where the group's aims and the aims and objectives of the relevant legislation and guidelines were not being met.
She said it would help individuals make their own submissions and provide information on its website about how to make a credible submission.
The group would liaise with similar groups in Pearl Beach and on the Central Coast.
Ms Knaggs said the group had been formed as an independent group from the Pearl Beach Progress Association but with its support.
She said the objective was "to protect and enhance the environment and encourage nature conservation within the village of Pearl Beach".
The group defined "environment" is in its broadest sense and included the man-made and the natural environment, and included the sensory as well as the physical environment.
"We will also be concerned with issues that are outside of Pearl Beach but which might impact on our 'environment," she said.
Ms Knaggs said the group had six draft aims:
1. To educate property owners, residents and visitors about the special qualities of Pearl Beach and its setting, including its environmental and cultural significance.
2. To promote recognition by authorities and other relevant groups of the special qualities of Pearl Beach and its setting.
3. To promote the principles of sustainable development.
4. To conserve biodiversity and protect and enhance indigenous wildlife populations and habitats - to promote the conservation, planting and maintenance of native vegetation, particularly vegetation indigenous to the area, and especially to protect existing tree cover.
5. To promote development that is sympathetic to the Pearl Beach environment and character - and to the immediate context of each development - particularly with regard to discouraging intrusive designs with excessive site coverage, bulk and height. To recognise that to achieve this often a level of urban, architectural and landscape design skills are required.
6. To work with other relevant groups in Pearl Beach and on the Central Coast to achieve these aims.
SOURCE:
Media release, 23 Mar 2021
Mary Knaggs, Pearl Beach Environment Group