Most Sydney residents have a very good reason to remember June of 2016. A severe low pressure system formed off the New South Wales coast, causing massive waves to crash against the shoreline and vivid television pictures showed the damage being caused to homes in Pittwater road, Collaroy.
That storm surge devastated homes fronting the beach. The sand on the beach disappeared and the wave action eroded inland until it was washing under the foundations of homes and causing them to collapse. Most striking was the sight of an entire in-ground swimming pool which was displaced and left in the beach shallows when the water finally receded.
Eighteen months later and those same residents are still fighting to get council approval to construct a seawall to protect their properties. The Northern Beaches Council requires a development application to be processed through the bureaucracy before any work can begin and this has developed into a fight between what the residents want and what the council demands.
Homeowners affected are prepared to spend $150,000 each on a seawall construction to protect their property but what the council demands may run to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and many think the council is shifting the protection for both neighbouring properties and the public beach by demanding a seawall that will achieve that protection - at their expense.
What is causing residents ire is the contradictions of council decisions. Valuable hotel properties damaged by the storm were ordered to carry out repairs while reasonable plans for their own property protection are being blocked.
This situation must chill the hearts of many people living near a beach. At any time the weather may repeat that high wave phenomenon and it may be another suburb that suffers similar damage. That all depends on the storm intensity and the direction from which it arrives. It also raises the issue of rising sea levels caused by global warming.
That presents both a short and a long term problem. The type of seawall residents propose in Collaroy will offer protection for perhaps the next twenty or thirty years, but in more than a hundred years many Sydney suburbs may be more like Holland, below the natural sea level and in need of protection by dykes.
Some council planners think we would be wise to abandon beach front properties and force residents to live on higher ground inland, and with that in mind propose to reject plans for rebuilding or renovation of existing beach front homes. That thinking claims seawalls are a waste of money and we should bow to the inevitable.
Building approvals are being rejected for land that is obviously prone to tidal surges but existing property owners have the right to try and protect their investment in at least the short term. The fact that these properties which received damage eighteen months ago can still not get seawall approval is simply a disgrace. The decision on the viability of any proposed seawall needs to be taken from council hands and decided by independent engineers.
It is unreasonable to expect owners of beachfront property to walk away from their valuable property and make no effort to protect their investment. Even a modest seawall will extend the life of the property while this global warming and rising sea level debate reaches a conclusion.
No comments:
Post a Comment