Fury over pathway plan
SOUTHERN Gold Coast beachfront owners are furious with the council after failing to get a detailed brief about a new concrete pathway about to be built in front of their homes.
As planning is now being finalised for the oceanway path, beachfront property owners have asked up to 20 questions of Mayor Tom Tate and area councillor Gail O’Neill about safety and privacy concerns.
Residents want to know about the future of pandanus trees, whether drains will be built and the security of the boulder walls they paid for in front of their homes.
In a one-line response, Cr Tate told them: “This is now an operational matter for council and I have no further comment.”
On the technical issues, a city spokesperson said: “The city is currently undertaking this project and impacted land holders are being kept informed”.
Tugun property owner Rod Harper said residents were furious because the planning was being developed in secret with works likely to start as early as July after the Commonwealth Games.
“The Mayor’s answer is a cop-out. It looks to me like he didn’t even read the questions,” Mr Harper said. “He needs to tell us why he misled us and why council broke its promises and the written contracts between them and the beachfront property owners.”
Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey said the project had started as an oceanway and residents were confused as it evolved into a 3.5m-wide sealed pathway from the Bilinga Surf Life Saving Club to Gibson Park at Tugun.
“Community consultation is paramount and it does not appear to have been undertaken in a comprehensive way,” Ms Stuckey said.
A Gold Coast Bulletin report in April 2016 detailed how the southern oceanway was being revisited after the previous council had dumped the project. Cr O’Neill supported the concrete path and Cr Tate, during the election a month earlier, said he would back the stand by the area representative.
But correspondence from the Mayor to a body corporate in Golden Four Drive in November 2013 reveals he had a different view.
“I’d also like to take the opportunity to reassure you that council’s recent activities in the area are not to do with the development of a pathway,” Cr Tate wrote. “The decision of the city still stands: there are not plans for a path and I further commit to never support building of a path”.
Ms Stuckey said: “People purchased property in good faith and are obviously upset at the change of heart of the Mayor and council”.
Cr O’Neill rejected suggestions she had supported the oceanway due to pressure from a pathway advocate, the Friends of Currumbin group.