Batemans Bay, New South Wales

Batemans Bay, New South Wales

(Image taken from http://www.makemystay.com.au/new-south-wales/coastal-nsw/accommodation/, 18/4/12)'

The LGA of Eurobodalla is in charge of 112 km of coastline from Batemans bay in the north to Narooma in the south. The challenges faced by this LGA are;

·        *The threat of climate change and rising sea level

·        *An aging population-low socio-economic status

·        *Duplication and maintenance of amenities year round

·        *The triple population in summer, opposed to approximate 38,000 the rest of the year

·       * Influx of tourist on amenities and them not paying tax

·        *Influx of Canberra’s on long weekends and holiday season- not paying tax

·        *Lack of full-time positions, 40 % part time work rate

·        *Low population of young people; 20-30

These threats and statistics can be seen below;

http://learnonline.canberra.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=418871

The question is how can this LGA fix these problems which will continue to be exacerbated by population growth. With a rise in local taxes near impossible due to the low socio economic status of this area what can be done? Who is responsible for funding projects to help this LGA? What are your thoughts?

My thoughts:

·        *This LGA needs to come up with a way to encourage young persons to come here. Perhaps a university can be set up focusing on marine studies, as this area is apart of a marine park? I

·        *Holiday taxes are inevitable. Perhaps they could raise the price of everything here, and locals get a 10% reduction in everything? This would make the tax less noticeable and is already done in some retailers I have been too on the coast.

·        *ACT government, whose citizens use the assets here, along with NSW government, have responsibility in helping this LGA. However it can be debatable to amount of contribution that would be needed

What do you think of my ideas?

In class we did a “round table” role play. The role play was about the Eurobodalla area and the challenges associated with living here. We had members of the public, restaurant owners, house owner from Canberra, Eurobodalla’s chief planner, Eurobodalla’s Mayor, Chief Minister of Canberra and the New South Wales Premier. This role play whilst entertaining showed the difficulties of getting many parties to come to an agreement. It really outlined the difficulties that arise in planning that we will have to deal with. It showed that a lot of funding comes down to politics rather than what is the right, or wrong thing to do. I think it showed that us as planners in a professional sense we must be able to deal with many different stake holders and understand that many of our ideas may become fruitless if we cannot convince policy makers to support us.

What do you think of this?

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