Pt Moore study blow

The Department of Planning says the Department of Lands is unlikely to fund coastal protection works for Point Moore and “leaseholders should not be under any hope of such action”.

According to letters published on the City of Greater Geraldton’s website between the DoP, DoL and City, the Point Moore Inundation and Coastal Processes Study completed in November last year shows the current Point Moore footprint is at risk of inundation, a position explained to residents earlier this year.

In one letter to the City from DoP statutory planning manager Johan Gildenhuys, he writes “there is sufficient basis and detail in the study to conclude against the extension of the current leases when they expire in 2028”.

“If the City is not prepared to take this advice, consideration could be given to short-term trigger-based leases that include a risk notification. However it is hard to see how any extension of the existing leases would assist in achieving the development of the West End for strategic tourism,” he wrote.

City of Greater Geraldton Ken Diehm said there were various land uses for the West End area, not just tourism.

“The reference to the tourism area is just in the context of DoP’s input into the City’s Local Planning Scheme for the West End and in their view long-term extension of leases doesn’t support development for tourism,” he said.

“The letter is to advise the City that DoP agree with Department of Transport’s advice from last year which eludes (sic) that neither Department supports long-term extension of the leases in the special-use (residential) area, based on the findings of the inundation study.

“DoP has referred to the West End area generically only and not discerned between the various land uses in the LPS.”

WA Planning Commission chairman Eric Lumsden said the area west of Geraldton Port was constrained by a number of factors including surrounding port activity and the likelihood of long-term flooding.

“Tourist activity, therefore, is considered the most appropriate land use option in the long term,” he said.

City acting chief executive Ross McKim toldThe Geraldton Guardian in Februarythe letters would be made publicly available on the City’s web page.

“The (inundation) report findings were not significant in that they did not significantly alter the City’s understanding of the situation,” he said.

“No decision has been made on the leases and no decisions have been made on the long-term future use of the land.”

Mr McKim said the letter assumed the City or the Department of Lands would be unlikely fund or maintain coastal protection works.

“That is an assumption that the Department of Lands cannot make with respect to the City,” he said.

“Ultimately, the cost to construct and maintain coastal protection works currently sits with the City and this would impact ratepayers who would fund such works.”