AMALAGATION 

How the Project is implemented will have a significant and possibly negative impact on how the Foreshore Reserve at Pt Leo is managed and financed into the future. 

We have been asked by DEWLP to share with you details of the Project, to assist you in understanding its implications and to ask you to provide your own feedback to DWELP on the 3 options it has proposed for the future management of coastal reserves along  the Westernport coastline between Hastings and Shoreham and for Pt Leo in particular.

Unfortunately DELWP have only provided a short period for the public to respond with such feedback (until 5 July 2020). 

After reading the information below, If you felt strongly enough about this issue,  there is a link at the bottom to provide feedback  via a DELWP devised survey

In order for you to understand the Project and its proposed Options, DELWP expect you to read a high volume of material, and view lengthy online videos. This is onerous, but to assist you we set our comments below.

To read the full proposal please follow the following links.

Improving management arrangements of Coastal Crown land and DELWPs FAQ

The Options Paper.  

The Options Paper has been developed by Grosvenor Consulting Group for DELWP. It essentially uses a scale to grade 3 possible options: 

Option 1: retain existing Committee of Management (COM) structure over each of the                     coastal reserves. COMs are drawn from local communities and are usually                     resident at or near the relevant reserve. Such positions are voluntary.

Option 2:  (a)merge the Somers, Balnarring and Merricks reserves under one COM and

                 (b) merge Pt Leo and Shoreham under one COM

Option 3: merge each of Somers, Balnarring, Merricks , Pt Leo and Shoreham under                     one COM

The Options Paper applies a series of “desirable outcomes” as detailed in the Outlook Framework (page 7) to each option as a means to assess their respective merit. Objectively each “outcome” is desirable. The question is whether the implementation and funding of the relevant option will in fact deliver the desired outcome. In our view, the assumption that any particular Option will result in the desired Outcome is not supported by any evidence provided by Grosvenor or DELWP in the documentation. Wishful thinking is not a sound basis for change.

In addition, the Options Paper sets out a Change Continuum Graph (page 9). Unfortunately while the concept of plotting management outcomes can be helpful in assessing options, this graph does not set out any measurable scale and risks being misleading. 

At the core of Option 2 and 3 is the appointment of “professional” (paid) COMs but does not detail the cost of this overhead. Nor does the paper commit to external funding of those positions or for cost of the centralisation of administration across all Foreshore reserves.  

Option 2 is potentially workable as both Shoreham and Pt Leo are co-located, and already undertake co-operative activities across both foreshore areas. It also has the advantage that each have sustainable and adequate self generated funding sources.

Option 3 in particular risks the leakage of Pt Leo sourced revenues (camping and parking fees) to subsidise other Reserves which have no significant revenue generation capacity. In addition, a centralised mega COM risks losing the localised representation and participation that our current system tries to promote at present. 

Please follow this link to view DELWPs Comparative analysis of Options and our comments and concerns on both the application of the rating scale and on the Current State Report which purports to support allocation of grading.

The analysis is not, in our view,  sufficiently supported by hard evidence. Conclusions merely asserted without evidence, are of no probative or predictive value. And without any budget detail with funding it is difficult to assess whether any option would deliver the proposed outcomes. For this reason the absence of evidence supporting the outcome conclusions, budget and funding details, Pt Leo COM is not able to recommend either Option 2 or 3. 

We say this because:

1. No costings have been done or presented of any option.
2. No cost benefit analysis has been done or presented.
3.  No additional money is being offered for operating budgets on any option.
4. The additional cost of paid directors will be an additional cost paid out of the current revenue and reduce operating budgets.
5. No additional revenue streams have been suggested anywhere.
6. No assessment of the impact of any option on the environment has been done. Itis not an assessment criterion in the Comparative Analysis.
7. No assessment of the loss of volunteerism of any option has been done.
8. No management structure of any option has been presented.
9. There has been no adequate public consultation  by DELWP
10. No assessment of how combining Somers, Balnarring and Merrick’s could be financially feasible has been done or presented.
11.  No assessment of the different sizes, natural environments or needs of the 5  foreshores for example in terms of staff, equipment, botanical knowledge relating to operational needs has been provided.

Please read the material carefully,  and if you have any questions please direct them to Tony Walkington our  Foreshore Manager by email at info@pointleo.com 

Once you have done so please go online prior to July 5 and register your feedback in the Survey found here.

Campfires.

Winter Camping at Point Leo

Sites 1 to 249 are open all through winter for camping.

This now includes camping in seasonal campsites East

Arriving without a booking?

Bookings are required for campsites Friday to Sunday. If you arrive without a booking on a weekend we may not be able to accommodate you.

Bookings are recommended Sunday to Thursday. If you arrive without a booking and the office is closed please call the number on the office window.  If you arrive stafter the office is closed at 4 pm you will not be able to choose your own campsite. We have 6 sites put aside for mid week campers that arrive after the office is closed, you will be allocated one of these.

Please… Help us protect our Nesting Shorebirds

It’s Spring! (well at least the calendar and the shorebirds think so) and that means that our red capped plovers are beginning to nest again. For those of you who haven’t heard of these beaut little birds, they are the  small little white and grey birds found mostly on the sand between the surf life saving club and Shoreham. Their nests are super hard to see and their eggs are superbly camouflaged to blend in with the sand. Locally they are vulnerable (at risk of becoming endangered).  We try to fence off the nests when we find them but there is a couple of simple things that you can do to help us look after these birds.

• Always keep your dogs on a lead
• During the nesting season keep to the hard packed sand when on the beach

More information can be found in this great article on the Shoreham community website, including details of a volunteer training day if you would like to participate in the monitoring and care of these birds on our beaches.