Alfred Cove: Wave Park proponents confident despite appeals against EPA decision not to assess

THE proponents of the proposed wave park at Tompkins Park are confident of the project’s future, despite nearly a dozen appeals against an Environmental Protection Authority’s (EPA) decision not to assess it.

The Office of Appeals Convenor has confirmed it has received 11 appeals against the EPA’s decision not to assess the $25 million project.

It is expected the appeals will take place over the next few months with a report to be presented to Environment Minister Stephen Dawson on how the issues should be resolved.

Wave Park Group (WPG) and Urbnsurf founder and executive chairman Andrew Ross said they had been through the appeals and responded to them in detail.

“We’ve had a discussion with the appeals convenor, who will assess the appeals and we are very confident that she has now got all the information she needs to make a decision as to whether the EPA has acted correctly or not,” he said.

“From our perspective at least, there were no new grounds raised that hadn’t already been addressed in the materials that we had submitted.”

Swan Foreshore Protection Association spokesman David Maynier said “incorrect information” and the EPA’s decision not to question it was the basis of their appeal.

“The referral by Urbnsurf to the EPA is full of vague but reassuring statements that there would be no environmental issues, but it is very short of substantial detail,” he said.

“The EPA asked the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) for its advice on the referral and DBCA replied that there was not enough information to make an assessment.

“In this situation, the EPA may make a decision not too assess because there is insufficient detail, but it cannot give the reason that there will be no significant impact on the environment.

“There is simply not enough information for the EPA to make that call.”

Urbnsurf is now putting its Development Application (DA) together, which will go to the Metro Central Joint Development Assessment.

Mr Ross said the company was waiting on the result of the Supreme Court case about the ground lease, which favoured the company.

“We’ll look to run that through some stakeholder groups and the council before it is submitted to the WA Planning Commission,” he said.

“As soon as the DA is approved there is a final stage of detailed design that we need to go through and that then allows us to apply for a building licence.

“With that building licence being approved we can then move to site.

“If this was Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane I’d suggest it would take us six to nine months to move to site but we have been challenged at every step.”