Year 2 and Year 8 students come together for excursion

Year 2 students from Umina Beach Public School and Year 8 students from Umina campus of Brisbane Water Secondary College have come together for a Cultural Continuum excursion.

The theme for the beautiful first day of spring was sand art, with students starting with sand art stickers with coloured sand.

They then broke into teams and made sand art sculptures.

The students had to tell the story behind their sculptures and drawings in the sand to the judges.

SOURCE:

Social media, 1 Sep 2025

BWSC Umina

Council backs away from 60 per cent growth figure

Central Coast Council appears to be backing away from its plan to see 60 per cent more dwellings built on the Peninsula over the next 10 years, a figure it adopted less than three months ago.

The Council's 10-year Community Strategic Pla, adopted on June 23, n uses figures for "Woy Woy's additional dwelling capacity at approximately 11,500 dwellings".

This represents a 60 per cent increase on current dwelling numbers of 19,500.

The figure is used in the same section of the Plan that refers to plans for an extra 10,000 dwellings at Warnervale.

However, council growth plans were called into question at a workshop convened in the Peninsula Community Centre by Gosford West ward's Cr Jane Smith on Sunday, August 31, to discuss the forthcoming Local Strategic Planning Statement.

Neither Cr Smith nor Council strategic planner Ms Sharon Turkington, who addressed the meeting, appeared to be aware of the statement.

In response to questions from Peninsula News, the Council's media unit issued a statement that the figure was "the maximum theoretical dwelling capacity" and not an actual capacity.

The figure was also one that applied to the whole Peninsula, and not just to Woy Woy.

"The Central Coast Housing Strategy looked at the maximum theoretical dwelling capacity of the Peninsula area and determined the net capacity for the Peninsula is 11,577 additional dwellings.

"Although the net capacity was determined to be 11,577 dwellings, it is very unlikely the theoretical dwelling capacity can be achieved in the Peninsula."

The statement said that the dwelling capacity analysis did not consider market demand for different types of dwellings, take up rates, individual lot constraints such as flooding, biodiversity or topography.

"It shouldn't be relied on solely to understand future dwelling growth across the Peninsula."

Both the figure of 11,577 dwellings and the statement about the limitations of a "dwelling capacity analysis" appear to be taken from an "Existing conditions report" prepared in 2021 by council consultants Hill PDA.

In that report, the statement about the nature of the capacity analysis was the introduction to a section that did canvass "take-up rates".

It projected take-up rates as being between 1663 dwellings and 2352 dwellings, an increase of between 8.5 and 12 per cent.

Since those 2021 figures, the Council has introduced new planning controls that allow higher dwelling densities and the State Government has introduced its own provisions for higher dwelling densities including Transport-Oriented Development, Low- and Mid-Rise Housing, and dual occupancy policies all of which also allow increased densities.

"The draft Local Strategic Planning Statement is currently being prepared," according to last week's council statement.

"The aim is to have the community consultation, following Council endorsement, early next calendar year.

"Council is not calling for submissions yet as we don't have a draft document.

"Council welcomes the feedback provided through Cr Smith's workshop

"It is working on a placed-based approach to the development of a new Local Strategic Planning Statement, including identification of key centres such as the Peninsula, where Council will look to undertake more detailed planning and infrastructure delivery to ensure Centres can accommodate future growth."

The council statement did not give the council's current expectation for future dwelling growth on the Peninsula.

SOURCE:

Media statement, 4 Sep 2025

Central Coast Council