SEMP feedback due now
Sue Brooks January 22nd, 2012
Please visit the Council home page or your Library to view a copy of this important document. Feedback is due by Feb 3rd.
Now is the time to Have Your Say on Stage 2 of the Shoreline Erosion Management Plan better known as the SEMP. The plan is nearing completion and will give us guidance as to our options when trying to combat shoreline erosion.
I know that some members of the community believe combating erosion is a waste of time and money and that we should let nature take its course but we are faced with losing millions of dollars of public and private beach land and infrastructure and I am firmly in the let’s do something camp.
I would like to see the urban beaches preserved and protected so that this unique coastal strip can be enjoyed by our descendants. To do this we must ensure we do it right the first time. There is nothing worse than wasting money on so called clever solutions that don’t work.
Now to the SEMP. The first section is all about stuff we mostly already know but the Appendices are where you will find the important detail. Appendix C outlines the costing’s of various erosion protection activities from sand pushing to rock walls. My only complaint about this section is that there are no local costing’s and I believe our Council conducted sand pushing at a greatly reduced cost than is quoted here.
App D. The options criteria are described and I believe this section is quite well dons. App E describes the erosion prone areas and maps the predicted inundation by the sea to the existing coastline. A bit scary if you are a property owner in the areas outlined. App F shows what we will lose. App G totals up the land value that could be lost based on current pricing. The total of $887 million dollars’ worth of land potentially lost provides an idea in real terms of what we are fighting for. App H describes the options for action or no action.
My concern with this last Appendix is that it has ranked the options according to the current legislation. By way of example if the Marine Park zoning prohibits certain activities e.g. sand pushing or sand scraping as the SEMP calls it, then the SEMP says we can’t do it. I would have preferred that the SEMP provided a list of options that would be the best ones for the coastline regardless of legislation and then another list demonstrating whether the option was permitted or not under current legislation. This will be the basis for my feedback.
I want to know what the best solution is first and foremost. If that solution is the best then I want the legislation changed. I don’t want to lose coastline or waste money on less effective solutions if the only stumbling block is current legislation. We need to treat our coastline with respect, with care and we need to spend money sensibly on outcomes that are proven to work.
Feel free to copy any of this and use it to assist you with your submission but please take the time to voice your opinion. If we don’t have our say we can’t really complain later on!
- Council related issues
- Comments(4)
Well, I have ploughed diligently through the SEMP plan, Appendices and all, and I have seldom (but not never) seen such a lot of public service claptrap.
Beautifully laid out, doubtless at enormous expense, and telling us that the sea may encroach in some places rather more than in others – particularly important if you live on the Esplanade in downtown Torquay or on the Eli Creek frontages. Hardly surprising. That doing ‘a lot’ will have better results than only ‘doing a little’ or nothing at all. Even King Canute would have recognised that. And like King Canute with the British tides, there is little we can do to stop the ocean from causing erosion in the long term. Sand pushing/scraping lasts a few weeks. Rock walls and concrete may last a few decades . Groynes, boat ramps, and marinas will divert the erosion to ‘someone else’s front yard’ .
The sea WILL win eventually. It always has and always will. Best solution ? Dont build anything important close to the beach . Build on high land. Dont wate taxpayer money on fulsome glossy reports that actually say very little. Any submission this writer might make would be along these lines. So perhaps I should refrain from making one.
Colin,
I could not agree more, politics today (if not always), is more about winning votes than doing some thing constructive.
Coastal changes are an onging thing and always have been, man-V-environment, means man always loses out.
People choose to live by the sea and that is their right, however, that is no reason for the rest of society to protect
their assets. Ratepayers monies should be used for the benefit of the many, not the few.
There are many thing in our region that need money, things that will have a lasting impact on all residents. To waste
and that is what it will be waste, to appease a few coastal dwellers is nothing but political madness.
I feel that strongly about this issue (ongoing), I’d debate any one any where on this matter.
I think you guys both missed the point.. That and have a one sided view of what the bay would be if we didn’t have a beach. Foe one, nature doesn’t always win! there are many upon many examples of small to large projects that have stopped nature taking away things we love about it and we comming out on top to keep them without anything more than the cost of doing so. And in almost every case the people fronting the cost were happy about it.. HB is not only the “coastal dwellers” what the council does effects every single person in the bay in many different ways.. this one thing effects them to some extent but to less extent as it effects the city as a whole.. You guys say it’s money better spent somewhere else.. So Where? No point saying it if you havent any sollutions.. Also if the council doesn’t protect the beaches how long before the coastline is a wall of rocks for waves to wash upon? how would the bay look then? How would you like to describe it to friends who have never been here? “Yeh beach? We used to have one but i voted to let it get washed away so now we have a rock wall and maybe soon the buildings near by may get washed out to sea, and the tourists, backpackers and caravaners have all gone.. But hey, we have GREAT footpaths” HB needs a beach.. it’s not that hard to understand.. and you can be nearsighted and say there’s nothing we can do,, and perhaps not so much can be done now. But if we use what we do know now to the best of our abilities we in the future, along with our kids and theirs may be able to enjoy the beach we love and use as much as we can.. Like most of us do i guess.. Still if you cared about HB having a beach you’d be in support of at least something trying to preserve it.. Please Sue help keep our beaches! my kids and so many others will thank you for it.. Not sure how many kids or grandkids will be thankfull for a rock wall with no sand to play on..
Ben’n'Bam
Yuckycrumpet,
I see your post as confusing at best, “how long before the coastline is a wall of rocks for the waves to wash apon?” That in case you
don’t know is one of the options to stop erosion.
As to what could be done with the same amount of money, that could improve the well being of our entire region, roads, electrcity generation from rubbish, sewerage in areas that don’t have it, sorry but the list goes on.
I repeat, there is nowhere that I know of, where the seas have been stopped with out an adverse impact some where else.