Against Tugun/Bilinga Beachfront Concrete Path Construction

  The whole thing started when the NSW government installed groins at the Tweed River mouth in 1964 which stopped the natural drift of sand northwards to the Gold Coast.  Cyclones then caused severe erosion especially at Kirra and Bilinga.  North Bilinga and Tugun were less severely eroded but for a long time, there was not the expanse of beach that everyone was used to.  The council decreed that boulder seawalls to their specifications were to be built in front of all property developments and that the owners of the properties paid for these.  The NSW governement then started pump]ing sand from the Tweed River mouth to Point Danger and there were no further erosion problems for the beaches.  Subsequently the council recognised that the seawalls were then the responsibility of the owners so the council built fences between the property borders and the seawalls across the Pacific Parade road reserve.  The council told the owners the onus was on them to look after the road reserve and the seawall and dunes.  The general public were stopped by the council from using the road reserve recognising there was ample access to the beach at side streets off Golden Four Drive.  Some people saw the fences and thought it was the property owners who had erected them and protested to the council.  The old council who had built the fences had long gone and the new council told the beachfront property owners to remove the fences. The owners told the council to remove them as it was the council who erected them in the first place.  Eventually the property owners removed the fences at their own cost.  The activists were still not happy and lobbied the council to create a path for bicycles. This was detrimental to the safety of the property owners and walkers but their protestations fell on deaf ears.  A community consultation was conducted on the path in 2012 and the community made it clear that the grass path should be retained and the cycle ways upgraded on Golden Four Drive.  The so called Friends of Currumbin then conducted a petition to get the grass path concreted over. Signatures were gained by unethical means as canvassers told the public that the property owners were going to close the road reserve or would buy the road reserve and would close the oceanway.  This was not the reality. This petition was acted on by the council who ignored the proper procedures of the comunity consultation process and produced a report to recommend conforming with the requirements of the FOC.  Since the council have been told what to do by a few people and a petition conducted in an unethical way, the Friends of Tugun and Bilinga (now called STABLE (Save Tugun And Bilinga Local Environment) decided to make their own petition against the concrete path.  What we need now is more than 8,888 signatures.  If we get this, the council will have no choice but to cancel the concrete path.