By CHERIE DONNELLAN
THE chairman of a council-endorsed Bells Beach advisory group has resigned, claiming Surf Coast Shire failed to take the committee seriously.
Bells Beach Community Advisory Committee’s Andrew Cherubin’s resignation email to council, which the Independent obtained, said his decision to quit was “not taken… lightly”.
He believed the committee was “effectually defunct” because the shire failed to consult it when completing a master plan for the famous surf break.
Mr Cherubin said council had abandoned its promise to review the committee’s decision-making powers, allowing it only to implement the master plan.
The inability to influence the plan was “a significant restriction”, he said.
Community members have fought the shire’s master plan process for several years under the previous council, fearing changes to parking, infrastructure and viewing facilities would turn Bells into a “theme park”.
The plan was intended to include schemes to repair drainage, sewerage and erosion issues.
Mr Cherubin said the new council cancelled meetings with the committee to discuss Bells’ future.
“The constant postponement of cancelling of scheduled BBCAC meetings by council has severely limited the committee’s input to council on matters relating to Bells Beach,” he said.
The shire also failed to host discussions to resolve objections to parts of the “flawed” master plan, Mr Cherubin said.
“It is my position that this lack of meeting has resulted in no significant positive outcomes from the committee’s efforts.”
The Independent reported in February the shire had adopted its predecessor’s hiatus on working with community advisory groups, which had stalled communication on various issues and left them in limbo.
Mr Cherubin said he met Mayor Libby Coker, shire sustainable communities director Dennis Barker and other officers in February to discuss the Bells “visioning process”.
He was under the expectation council would reinstate the committee and outline its responsibilities “within two weeks of that meeting”.
But the shire had failed to make contact with him since the meeting, he said.
Cr Coker said she was unable to respond before the paper went to press on Wednesday.
