Bureaucratic Procrastination drags Tea Gardens Jetty to Lowest Ebb Myall Coast Myall Coast by News Of The Area - Modern Media - July 4, 2023 Only seabirds can enjoy use of the pontoon at the end of the cordoned-off jetty. LAUNCHING a boat at Tea Gardens’ Apex Park jetty has become a thing of the past, as orange danger fencing and a hastily attached “wharf closed” sign now bars passage. It is a physical manifestation of the bureaucratic red tape that has been wrapped around the jetty for more than two years. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au MidCoast Council’s website still hosts a page on the ‘Tea Gardens Jetty Consultation POP-UP’, from back in April 2021, with a link to a ‘have your say’ site that no longer exists. A parallel MCC site says, “funding for the boat ramp consists of $330,000 from NSW Boating Now, and a further $40,000 from Council funds”. The same webpage says “structural drawings are being completed by the contractor”, although there is no indication how long the project has been mired in this particular phase. Understandably, several serious boaties in Tea Gardens/Hawks Nest stand flabbergasted that nothing has happened in the last 24 months, and now the literal ‘red tape’ has descended on the jetty. Members of the Myall River Action Group (MRAG) have told NOTA that, while the current ramp is far from ‘user-friendly’, the jetty is a key council asset that has fallen into disrepair, mainly because it hasn’t been maintained. “We are particularly concerned that the attained funding will be lost if nothing happens soon,” MRAG’s Gordon Grainger told NOTA. The delay – according to MCC’s director of liveable communities Paul DeSzell, when queried at June’s community conversations – is a recurring nightmare of design changes, necessitating new environmental reviews, requiring new licences, which also involves Crown Land. This jetty situation at Apex Park, near the base of the Singing Bridge, heralds yet another stunningly sluggish red tape low-point that no-one with authority seems willing to touch. “We just want a relatively simple ramp that is user-friendly, ideally with a floating pontoon,” Mr Grainger said. The jetty is now little more than a seabird-sunning platform, and the worn-out concrete ramp was a severe bottleneck in busy periods. By Thomas O’KEEFE Crooked pylons and worn-out planks present real danger unchecked. Ugly orange tape represents the ugly red tape making this jetty unusable. The concrete boat ramp next to the jetty has seen better days, too.
