Mayor sinks Tugun CST bid

MAYOR Tom Tate has effectively sunk the chances of a $2 billion cruise ship terminal at Tugun being refloated.

Reacting to a private proposal yesterday to build a terminal off the southern Gold Coast, Cr Tate said: “One thing about the Gold Coast, we’re entrepreneurial. We dare to dream. But this dream is not in synch with council’s decision.

“Our council, after The Spit masterplan, we will be presenting to the State Government that the oceanside cruise ship terminal at Philip Park is the way to go.”

Cr Tate said the proposal by developers Dennis and Lester Hughes, first mooted about six years ago, would need to access public land and any approval would require council and government support. “I don’t think it will get up.” Lester Hughes is a former Gold Coast City Council and National Party figure, and his brother Dennis is the project director for billionaire developer Bob Ell’s Leda group.

The original project caused a storm among surfers and was dumped by the Newman government in 2014 when 2500 people attended a protest rally to save the iconic Kirra wave.

The Government and council in 2016 supported a bid for the eighth world surfing reserve from Burleigh Point to Snapper Rocks, which ensures a surfing break along 16km of southern beaches remains protected from commercial development.

The Mayor is convinced that Philip Park, with its link to light rail and connection with Southport, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, is a better commercial