Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes will meet the NSW Deputy Premier’s Stockton Beach Task Force this week to discuss a state-led sand supply strategy.

The City of Newcastle (CN) is calling on the NSW Government to develop an approach for a sustainable initiative to support local councils as they develop coastal management programs within its management framework.

The increasing frequency of significant weather events that cause erosive damage to beaches along the NSW coastline will likely prompt LGAs to include sand supply as a coastal hazard management solution as part of their own individual policies.

“We developed a coastal management program for Stockton and identified that we needed 2.4 million cubic meters of sand on the beach as part of our mass sand supply strategy and then annual sand recharges. to maintain the amenity of the beach and the buffer that a massive supply of sand will provide to the community of Stockton,” said Cr Nelmes.

The City of Newcastle was one of the first councils in the state to have its Coastal Management Scheme for Stockton certified under the Coastal Management Act 2016 by the NSW Local Government Minister in August 2020 .

“In many ways, we are leading the charge with the work we are doing to study and understand the planning and approval pathways for the supply and access to sand needed to implement our sand supply strategy. mass for Stockton Beach,” said Cr Nelmes.

“CN will not be the only council to identify sand feeding as a solution to coastal risk management and we expect many councils to include sand feeding in their coastal management programs.

“A sustainable sand feeding scheme, developed and led by the NSW Government, would provide significant efficiencies and economies of scale to local councils.

“CN has already committed significant resources to completing investigations and understanding the environmental impacts and approval pathways for what will quickly become a matter of importance to the NSW Government, so it is makes sense to have a holistic approach and solution to the problem.

“We would like to see the New South Wales government lead the collaborative effort needed across the state to develop a sustainable sand supply program, including license approvals and ownership for eventual sand mining. sand at sea.”

The City of Newcastle invested $4.5 million in coastal protection measures in the 10 years leading up to Stockton CMP certification in August 2020.

The cost of implementing coastal management actions, including the initial mass sand supply, outlined in the Stockton Coastal Management Plan 2020, to provide a buffer zone for the coastline and beach amenities in Stockton will be $27.5 million.

CN also recently supported the New South Wales government’s application to the Federal Government’s Coastal and Estuarine Hazard Mitigation Program, which provides funding to help communities mitigate disasters related to coastal hazards.