Friday 8 April 2011

People's choice never an option

: Cairns Regional Council's Paul Cohen and Liz Collyer review the designs at the new shop in Macrossan Street.

First it was the need for a lagoon in Port Douglas, now it's the location which is being hotly debated as a recent The Newsport Poll reflects.

The question was simple, 'Should the lagoon be located near St Mary's by the Sea?"

By the end of polling, 89 answered in the negative while 82 said yes despite a large number of reader comments on the article 'St Mary's by the Lagoon' (Thursday 31 March) calling for another location to be chosen.

Council's Douglas Regional Manager, Liz Collyer, is leading a community consultation campaign with its headquarters based in a new shop in the Saltwater building on Macrossan Street.

"Everyone loves it (the shopfront), they think it's a great idea and we're here for three months for the consultation phase and then we'll go into more 'this is what's happening' once it goes through Council," Ms Collyer said. "We're out there with this community engagement."

Ms Collyer said she had met with the Port Douglas Restoration Society, including Virginia Donovan and Judi Piat, owners of St Mary's by the Sea who have expressed their concerned over the proposed location.

"They've been fed some inaccurate information. . .they've been told different things and then all of a sudden they go "what are they doing with our church?"

TAKE A LOOK AT THE LOCATION ASSESSMENT SUMMARY HERE

"It is such an icon of this town, and the wedding business is such a huge part of our economy, 1,000 weddings or so a year is big business to this town," she said.

While much work has been done in creating images of what the lagoon area may look like at the proposed location near St Mary's by the Sea, Ms Collyer said it was the Four Mile Beach option behind the Surf Life Saving Club which was given the nod by voters during the Feasibility Study.

"Whilst that got the most number of votes, and someone can sit in an internet cafe and go to different cafes and vote 100 times . . . but to be the most popular it would've had to have got more than these three (the three lagoon options near Dickson Inlet) totalled together.

"This was always where it was going to be, in this area, because it brings the whole waterfront together," Ms Collyer said.

People can view the plans and concepts and provide feedback by visiting the shop in the Saltwater building in Macrossan Street. and via the Cairns Regional Council website.

Have your say!

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Maggie Kelly, 28-04-11 11:02:

If we need a lagoon, then surely the place for it to be located would be near the surf life saving club which integrates it into the foreshore and beach. Certainly not in front of St Mary's Church.

Julie Robertson, 27-04-11 18:16:

Good on u Rhona, I totally agree with u. Is there any democracy in this state and in this area anymore? We love this town and being long term residents I really fail to see how a lagoon at the waterfront is going to bring in more tourists. It is the only area that is left that has natural beauty (Rex Smeal Park), beautiful views and a great place for tourists and locals a like to spend time in a natural environment. What happened to the reef and rainforest? Has it disappeared? Isn't that why the tourists come to town, to experience nature not a concrete jungle. If we really must have a lagoon put it by the life saving club, and make it blend in with the natural beauty!

Mat Churchill, 12-04-11 16:52:

Thanks for your comment Rhona.

With just a few days left for the public to make their thoughts known, now is the time to pop into the Master Plan shopfront in the Saltwater Building in Macrossan Street.

Check out the plans, ask questions, and have your say.

Rhona Eastment, 12-04-11 16:36:

The location for the lagoon seems to be driven by opportunistic business people. We, the people who have lived and worked here over many years seem to be passed over, as not being important. The preferred location, by the majority of people in, not only Port Douglas, but in the old Douglas Shire, is behind the surf club. One particularly pertinent point put to me by a resident, was that families will be the prime users, children want to play on the beach, children also want to swim Crossing town each time to carry out each of these activities separately borders on the ridiculous. St. Mary's by the Sea, is special to those of us who were active in its transportation down Grant Street on the back of a truck, as a derelict building, and then seeing it take on a new life. Certainly this important landmark of Port should not be moved. The lagoon should be. As well, for environmental reasons, it seems to me to be too close to the inlet, as shown in the artist sketches. But, to get down to basics, why is the lagoon going to attract people to Port Douglas? Surely it is the reef, the Daintree Rainforest, and surrounds that bring people, not a lagoon. Every apartment block, and resort in Port has a pool, or a 'lagoon' of it's own. Water conservation-wise, will it be covered by sails? One of my great angers is that the winter before last, we were within days of being put on Level 3 water restrictions. To my knowledge, NO resort or apartment house, has covers over their pools/lagoons, and the evaporation of water and the replacement of such results in heavy water consumption. If this lagoon does go ahead, we should at least have it covered.