Foreshore plan process open and consultative

I am dismayed at the number of incorrect and misleading statements being made about the Ettalong Foreshore Management Plan.

The process has been completely open and consultation extensive and any statement to the contrary is either a falsehood or comments from the ill-informed.

When the Ettalong Beach Memorial Club proposed its project, there was no contribution plan in place for the area.

The club, in speaking with council, asked what were the priorities for the area.

The Ettalong Foreshore was a major issue.

The club agreed to contribute the funds, provided that they were matched by local and State funds.

A broad view of works was given to cover up to about $1 million in construction costs and all this was assembled in a Deed of Agreement.

The club also paid $120,000 for a laneway that had not existed for many years, that was in its car park.

This money was used by Council to pay an independent consultant employed by them to assemble a number of reports done on the area, run public and stakeholder meetings and to come up with an agreed management plan.

A committee was formed made up of the Progress Association, Peninsula Chamber of Commerce and the Ettalong Heritage Committee.

They held many meetings to discuss and also held a number of public forums at which the proposed plans were displayed.

The club did not participate in those forums.

A management plan was agreed and submitted to Council which again placed it on exhibition, made additional changes, and then endorsed the plan.

To my knowledge, it then had to go to the State Minister for approval.

The club has not contributed the funds to date as no plan of works or co-funding has emerged to indicate that the work is to be done, or in fact can be done.

In the interim, however, when the land was being cleared and foundations dug to make way for the new building, many tonnes of pure A-Grade sand were donated to Gosford Council to rejuvenate the beach area which had largely disappeared.

The cost of that sand if sold in the commercial arena would have fetched, back at that time, over $400,000.

The club is as committed now as it was then to a project which is for the benefit of the whole community.

Cries in your paper of the Council "refusing" to issue the deed are fallacious, as they have their processes.

I offered a copy of the deed from our own records to both a Councillor and a person who is continuously writing letters to your paper about this, and a myriad of other issues, but the offer was not taken up.

The club could easily withdraw from the deed for a multitude of reasons of non-performance, particularly the delays now being caused by minority interests.

Of course, we will not do so.

It is a poor reflection on people who can do little but criticize those who are actually doing something for the benefit of the majority.

Peter J Hale, CEO Ettalong Beach Memorial Club