Mayor Matthews: Playing Politics with The Entrance Dredging

Central Coast Mayor, Lisa Matthews, is calling out the politics being played on the waterways by the Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast and Member for Terrigal, Adam Crouch.

“We waited five months for the NSW Government to approve a funding grant to support the Central Coast Council’s dredging program, an announcement that was made at the tail end of the floods,” Mayor Matthews said.

“To expect within four weeks of that announcement for dredging of The Entrance Channel to occur is simply reckless, the necessary surveys need to occur, and these are key phases of the project acknowledged by the NSW Government as part of the approval of the grant.

“The knock-on effects of haphazardly dredging the channel can have unforeseen consequences to other areas.”

Work on the dredging program is well underway, with the following completed in the past four weeks:

• Aerial survey of the sand spit and coastline using drone and laser technology;
• Underwater survey of the channel bed.

“As Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast, Mr Crouch should be focused on working with the state government to establish the expert panel, if he’s truly committed to fixing this issue.

“We want to deliver the best outcomes for the whole of the community without the politics, and this requires expertise, strategic thinking and long-term planning, as a state asset we want to continue to work closely with the State Government on a long-term solution,” concluded Matthews.