WITH a backdrop of council workers moving an exclusion zone fence to the edge of a main road, Stockton residents pleaded on Wednesday for the NSW government to intervene and help find a solution to the suburb's deepening erosion crisis.
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Residents said they were "sick of being ignored" as the beach continued to wash into the sea, forcing the permanent closure of Stockton's only childcare centre on Tuesday.
Engineers have deemed the building unsafe, leaving dozens of families with nowhere to send their children.
Mission Australia, who operated the centre, has offered to bus children from Stockton to another one of its facilities at Beresfield. Several parents who spoke to the Newcastle Herald said while they appreciated the offer, it wasn't a solution for toddlers.
Shadow minister for local government Greg Warren and Newcastle Labor MP Tim Crakanthorp joined residents outside the facility calling for the NSW government to act.
At the same time, City of Newcastle workers had no choice but to move the erosion exclusion zone fence eight metres closer to Barrie Crescent and its string of beachfront homes.
In some places the fence now sits within a metre of the road.
"Seeing this fence a few metres away from family homes is deeply disturbing to me," Mr Warren said.
"This is it at crisis level as we speak... I don't think it's fair this community is left abandoned."
In 1955, the North Stockton Surf Life Saving clubhouse was built on the site, that is now the abandoned childcare centre.
Long-term Stockton resident Brian Hunt described how the area around the old north Stockton surf club used to be part of the dune system leading to the beach.
The 57-year-old said it was extremely sad to see the state of the once iconic beach.
"There was a road in front of the club, and no exaggeration, about 150 metres of sand before you hit the wave zone," he said.
"A couple of large swell events in quick succession and there's not much of anything that anyone can do to stop it going into homes.
"If you have a problem you have to fix it, you don't just push it aside. The time to act was a long time ago."
Mr Crakanthorp said the council needed assistance from the NSW government to fast track a Coastal Management Program for the long-term management of the beach.
He called on the government to stop ignoring the problem and be part of the solution.
"It's not for our local council or local community who don't have the funds to fix it," he said.
RELATED READING:
- Erosion wipes out Stockton's only childcare centre
- Community meeting told Stockton beach losing a metre a year
- Mission Australia's storm damaged Stockton early learning centre
- Childcare centre's future under cloud in erosion saga
- Childcare centre forced to close temporarily due to beach erosion threat
- Council back to drawing board over long-term solution for Stockton erosion
- Playground of Stockton's Mission Australia early learning centre set to be relocated as a result of erosion threat
- Fears childcare centre could crumble into the sea
- Stockton solution moves forward with meeting
- Garbage tip washing into the sea at Stockton
- State government handballs responsibility for Stockton beach
- 2017: Exposed mine shaft shows Stockton beach's erosion problem needs 'urgent' solution
- 2016: Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes suggests 'underground breakwall'
- 2016: Worst erosion in memory leaves Stockton beach exposed to next storm
- 2014: Dangerous erosion on Stockton Beach
- 2013: Stockton beach erosion | photos, video
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