While Maurice is running as a private citizen and not as our President we would still like to support his campaign by posting his responses to the following Question and Answer sheet from the Surfrider Foundation:

Q1/ What is your vision for the Surf Coast?

Since the debate over commercial tour operators went public, serious misinterpretations and misrepresentations of the aims of the Bells Beach Preservation Society (and other community groups) have surfaced.

In an effort to set the record straight we would like to bust the following myths about commercial tour operators in the Bells reserve:

• Myth 1: the people voicing their opposition to commercial tour operators are just a fringe element.

Every community group with an interest in the Bells Beach reserve has embraced a policy of ‘no buses at Bells’. From the Torquay Boardriders, SANE, and the Surfrider Foundation to local business groups, all are unanimous that Bells must not be changed to accommodate commercial tour operators.

• Myth 2:   Commercial tour operators are providing a service for thousands of tourists that want to specifically visit Bells Beach.

The reality is that tourists visiting Bells as part of the commercial tour groups don’t specifically want to visit Bells. They are only interested in the Great Ocean Road, The 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and the eye candy down towards Port Campbell. Bells is just a little added extra for the tour companies to throw in. The tour companies don’t even really care that much, they are just worried that one operator may gain an advantage over others by offering a Bells tour where the others can’t

As much as we love Bells, to the commercial tour operators Bells is a coffee break before heading down the coast. We would rather have tourists at Bells who can appreciate the reserve for what it is and are prepared to take the time to make a specific visit, which brings us to the next point:

•  Myth 3: BBPS and other community groups want to keep tourists out of Bells and save it all for themselves.

The BBPS are all about keeping Bells accessible to people that have a genuine interest in the reserve. That is, tourists who want to come in and hang around for a while, those who can enjoy the reserve for what it is, maybe watch the surfers, use the walking tracks or even go for a surf. The fact is that by accommodating commercial tour traffic, these genuine Bells tourists are being discouraged and shortchanged.

What we are saying is that we actually want people to come and visit Bells, go for a surf and appreciate it for the same reasons we do. Effectively, we are lobbying for the exact opposite of keeping Bells to ourselves. We believe that people without access to their own transport should still be able to visit Bells as part of regulated groups coordinated by the Surfworld museum.

As for sabotaging the local tourism industry and being automatically opposed to anyone making a dollar:

• Myth 4: Commercial tour operators generate income for the surf coast region.

At present, the commercial tour operators generate negative income for the Torquay / Bells region. They actually cost money to be there. The big dollar generators are the drive through tourists and people who hang around town. Its so obvious it hardly bears repeating. If our stance was anti-income then why would it be supported by the main Torquay business groups?

• Myth 5: Bells will still be the same, buses or no buses.

Granting commercial tour operators access to the Bells reserve has already resulted in major changes to the car parks. The work that has already been done is repugnant on an aesthetic level and on a practical level, but that won’t be the end of it. The Surf Coast Shire has plans that include the construction of a bus hub in the Winkipop car park. They can call it what they like – it may be referred to as an amenities block, a visitor’s centre or one of a hundred different weasel words – but make no mistake it is there for the commercial operators.

It has been said elsewhere on this site but it is worth repeating:

The shire are using the commercial tour traffic as an excuse to enable development within the Bells reserve. If we keep the tour operators out of the reserve, the problem goes away.

• Myth 6: The Bells reserve is just the same as any other beach along the coast and therefore should be open for exploitation by the tourism industry.
  

Well is it?

Video credit to Wes at Nalu Productions, excellent work, as always>

OUR PETITION:   http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/love-bells-beach/

By now you are probably familiar with the new markings and signs in the Bells Reserve, but in case you have missed it, there are a whole lot of new yellow lines and signs.

The signs and line markings are there to cater for the tour company operators so they can safely use the Bells reserve as their first toilet stop on the way to the 12 Apostles. There is a separate post on this site explaining the flawed risk assessment process that has led to these changes, but that is another story. What is important for the rest of us is that these changes have two main side effects:

Firstly, they have transformed the atmosphere in the Bells car parks from a relatively natural ‘bushland’ setting to a suburban streetscape reminiscent of an Aldi car park (no disrespect intended to the good folk at Aldi…).

Secondly, they have drastically reduced car parking for people that choose to visit the Bells reserve in their own vehicles, that is, surfers and money spinning drive through tourists. The yellow lines mean that it is now illegal to park in areas that have been commonly used as car parks for years, particularly on days when the surf is average or better.

This has upset quite a lot of people, to put it mildly. Here at the BBPS, we see it as the thin edge of the wedge. The council has plans to develop the Winki car park as well, with even more bus parking and a toilet block with change rooms that will further erode the character of the reserve and reduce accessibility for surfers and drive through tourists.

There is plenty of information on this site about commercial tour operators and why we are against them, but in summary:

These Surf Coast Shire is intent on developing the Bells reserve in a manner that will benefit the commercial tour operators and disadvantage everyone else. If we can stop the tour operators from using Bells, there is no need for these developments. Stop the tour operators and the problem goes away.

If you would like to help us put a stop to this unnecessary debacle there are a couple of things you can do:

First, if you haven’t already done so, visit the petition at the top of this post and sign up.

Secondly, write an email to the Surf Coast mayor, Brian McKiterick at

 bmckiterick@surfcoast.vic.gov.au

and let him know how you feel about future developments at Bells being guided by commercial tour operators.

If you have time you could even give Brian a ring at the Shire offices, (03) 5261 0600, we’re sure he’d love to hear from you!

Have you had hours / days / weeks / months / years of good waves in the Bells reserve and now want to give something back?

You’re in luck, there is a Bells clean up day on this weekend. The Surfcoast Branch of Surfrider Foundation are organising things, if you are interested just follow the directions below:

“Hi Folks,

This is a reminder about the beach clean up at Bells Beach on 4th March,  10am until 12 noon. We hope that you can all be there to give the world’s first surfing reserve a bit of TLC.

This is a Clean Up Australia Day event so to be able to take part, you need to register on their website. It’s easy, just go to http://www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/Bells+Beach

Gloves and bags will be provided. See you there on 4th March!”

Another way is to go tto the Surfrider foundation page on facebook. It has a photo with it. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Surfrider-Foundation-Surf-Coast-Branch/155235701203088

or seen it elsewhere on this site.

Make no mistake. This work is being done to accommodate commercial tour operators within the Bells reserve.

We have been at pains to point out the ramifications of catering to commercial operators at Bells else where on the site, but by way of a quick summary:

*The commercial tour operators shouldn’t be in the Reserve in the first place.

*The benefits of allowing the commercial operators into Bells is negligible to non-existant in a financial, cultural or environmental sense, and dare we say it, it isn’t of much value to the punters on the tours.

*The shire has plans to drastically alter the layout of the car parks at Bells and Winki, including construction of a toilet / change room / visitor centre in the Winki carpark, in a way that will disadvantage surfers and the money spinning drive in tourists that make a huge contribution to the Surf Coast economy.

*Without the commercial tour operators, the existing infrastructure (if properly maintained) is more than adequate to cope with most levels of drive in drive out tourists and surfers.

*If we get rid of the commercial operators then we don’t have a reason to have these developments, and the problem goes away.

Still with us? Good.

The current works in the car park, including the removal of planted areas, are being done based on recommendations contained in this risk assessment document,

O’Brien Traffic Report,

and, as we said before, it is all being done by the Surf Coast Shire to accommodate commercial tour operators.

Feel free to peruse the document at your leisure, but bear in mind that it was done on a day when the surf was poor to unsurfable. Compare the conditions in the video below with the car free conditions shown in the report and decide which is more representative of normal conditions:

The important thing to note is that the large tourist coaches are told to make a ‘U’ turn halfway down the hill towards the Bells car park hammerhead.

So let’s see what an independent traffic assessment has to say about that:

Independent Assessment

To paraphrase, the second study raises doubts about the ability of the large tourist coaches to do a safe turn to exit the car park in the manner described in the above hand out. It also highlights that the recommendations in the first assessment overlook some significant Australian Standards including allowable gradients for bus turning areas and safe turning radii. There is also the issue of the speed hump located adjacent to the Bells toilets, or to quote the engineering company that commissioned the second report:

“I have grave concerns about a number of issues but particularly the lower speed hump opposite the toilets.

Andrew Cherubin & Associates

Which is another way of saying that the Surf Coast Shire are spending a lot of money to do something that isn’t going to work, in an attempt to accommodate buses that shouldn’t be in the reserve in the first place.

The current works in the Bells Reserve car park are proceeding because they are part of something called the ‘Coastal Management Plan’. The CMP required community approval before it could be implemented and this approval was provided via the Bells Beach Advisory Committee, reporting to the Surf Coast Shire.

It is important to note that, due to time restraints and an urgency to get some outstanding maintenance works started, the approval  given by the Bells Beach Advisory Committee was conditional and came with a number of provisos.  The intent of these provisos was to ensure that the community would have an over riding input into the type of developments allowed in the Bells Reserve.

Once the Shire obtained this approval the BBAC was sacked, and any further community input into devolopments at Bells has been effectively vetoed. You can read more about that by following this link.

You may have read in the local paper recently that the members of the Bells Beach Advisory Committee have now revoked their conditional approval of the CMP. Here’s an article from the Independent, and here’s one from the Surf Coast Times.

Here is the actual letter as it was sent to the Surf Coast Shire,that outlines the BBAC members reasons:

14/02/12

       FORMAL RETRACTION OF CONDITIONAL ENDORSEMENT FOR THE BELLS BEACH COASTAL MANAGEMENT PLAN AND MASTER PLAN, SEPTEMBER 2010

  To whom it may concern

On 24 August 2010, the Bells Beach Advisory Committee (BBAC) passed a resolution that gave conditional endorsement to the draft Bells Beach Coastal Management Plan.

At that time, Council representatives were insisting that by ‘fast tracking’ the endorsement, the BBAC would enable the Council to finally act on the urgent need to repair the storm water system, repair the septic system, and undertake erosion prevention work. This is best illustrated in a media release on 21 June 2010, where the former Mayor stated: “We have a responsibility to act. If we do not, Bells Beach reserve will be further degraded. Issues include erosion, inadequate toilets, traffic flow, parking and pedestrian safety”.

In an attempt to accommodate the Council’s requests for urgency, the BBAC conditionally endorsed the plan. Conditions were attached to safeguard the interests of the community. The most important condition was that Council must receive ongoing advice and direction from the BBAC regarding all elements of implementation and revisions of the Plan.

On 22 September 2010the Council adopted the Plan but resolved to review the terms of reference and the membership of the BBAC. The BBAC was then prematurely terminated with no explanation.

The BBAC has now been replaced by the Bells Beach Community Advisory Committee (BBCAC). The BBCAC has new terms of reference and while the “objectives” of the new terms of reference clearly allow for BBCAC to address all management issues for Bells Reserve, the Shire has been interpreting the two “responsibilities”in the terms of reference as exclusive. This false interpretation by the Shire has been their mechanism to effectively censor and remove any meaningful, tangible community input on the implementation and revisions of the Plan via the new BBCAC. Hence the true wishes of the community has been absent from all advice to Council from the BBCAC.

We would like to make it clear that many aspects of the 2010 Coastal Management Plan were unsatisfactory, and that endorsement of the plan was obtained by rushing the consultation process. Were we fully aware of what was to follow in terms of implementing the plan there is no way we would have signed off on the plan, and as such, our signatures should not be seen as community endorsement of the plan.

We respectfully request that the draft Coastal Management Plan be returned to the community for proper consideration. If the Surf Coast Shire sincerely believes that the plan is a true representation of the community’s vision for the future of Bells then it should have no hesitation in amending the current terms of reference for the new BBCAC to allow the input into the implementation process that was promised to the BBAC.

The future of Bells should be decided through a process of full and transparent community consultation and not the flawed process that currently operates

signed

  Chris Barr

  Maurice Cole

  Andrew Dickenson

  Luke Hynes

  Martin Reid

  SANE

  Surfrider

  Neville Stanley

The blokes on site have been handing out this flier, below, to put forward the Shire’s spin on why the work is being done.

So, according to the Shire, its all about public safety.

We see things differently. Here, with some help from the Surfrider foundation, is our take on the situation:

Vegetation was removed on Friday from the Bells Beach car park to make more room for commercial buses, with more to be removed in the coming days. The Council say it’s to make the car park safer but that doesn’t make sense.

The state & local governments have gone on the record, in the press and at various meetings, as saying there will be ‘no tourist development’ in the Bells reserve, most notably in an article printed recently in the Geelong Advertiser with the following quote from Dean Webster:

“This council has no plans for tourism development at Bells other than fixing the sewerage system and the drainage, which has caused problems with erosion,” Cr Webster said.

It would be nice to believe that, but they also have a Coastal Management Plan that clearly shows  their intent to cater for commercial operators within the reserve in the long term. The plans show more infrastructure, (parking, toilets in the Winkipop car park, interpretive buildings, signage, statues etc. for photo opportunities & viewing platforms) perhaps even a tourist hub like at 12 Apostles.

It doesn’t matter what word games the Surf Coast Shire want to play when defending this work, it is a development for the benefit of commercial tour operators, so its Tourist Development!

a planting area was removed from here

This is the second planting area that will be removed in the next few days.

*Neither the council’s Bells Beach Community Advisory Committee or the surfing community were consulted about these changes.

*The current changes are not consistent with the Bells Beach Surfing Reserve Coastal Management Plan adopted by the Minister in October 2010.

*These works represent a complete u-turn in the environmental management philosophy for the reserve.

* Increased paving in the car park will lead to an increase in stormwater runoff.

Please forward this link on to anyone who loves Bells, surfing, or our wonderful coastline and encourage them to ‘like’ us on facebook. This will be the best way for us to keep everyone up to date with what is going on at Bells.

You can click on the facebook logo on this page to get there.

Here are some other things you can do to help:

*Go to www.surfrider.org.au Join Surfrider Foundation and get involved.

*Write to the local and National newspapers

*Write to the state Minister for the environment & climate change, Hon. Ryan Smith MP ryan.smith@parliament.vic.gov.au

*Write to Federal Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities Hon. Tony Burke MP Tony.Burke.MP@environment.gov.au

*Write to the local member for South Barwon, Andrew Katos MLA andrew.katos@parliament.vic.gov.au

*Write to the federal member for Corangamite, Darren Cheeseman MP at Darren.Cheeseman.mp@aph.gov.au

*Write to the councillors of Surf Coast Shire, their email addresses can be found at  www.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/My_Council/Councillors

*Attend the beach clean up at Bells Beach as part of Clean Up Australia Day, March 4^th, 10am  – 12 Noon. Please make sure you register at http://www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/Bells+Beach