THE big challenge for the redevelopment of the Busselton foreshore will be funding it.
South West Development Commission (SWDC) CEO Don Punch made this observation on Friday during a special media briefing to launch the calling of submissions for the revitalisation of the foreshore.
And, according to shire economic development manager Paul Martin, it could be five years before anything is done.
The briefing involved the Busselton Foreshore Working Group, shire and SWDC.
“I think what the committee has found is there is a real challenge in terms of the balance of people’s perspectives and values,” Mr Punch said.
“Probably the real hard challenge after that is for them to come forward with that synthesis that is going to be the best of all of those views and really position the foreshore for the next 20, 30 or 40 years. The big challenge will be funding it.”
Working group chair Helen Shervington said there was a need for a major revitalisation of the foreshore and to develop plans which would take it into the future to complement the jetty.
“We have formed a consultation model, which means that we can guarantee that we have consulted everybody in the community, all our key stakeholders, and everybody has had an opportunity to input. This has taken us quite a while to develop.
“We want as much input as we can possibly get.
“Then it’s up to our group to sift through that and come up with a framework of the sorts of things that the community wants to see on the foreshore and develop that into a plan.
“Hopefully at the end of that we will have a plan which meets the needs of our community and is acceptable to our community and is the plan we will be taking back to the shire council.
“We will be looking at ways forward then and making some recommendations on how that plan will be implemented.”
Ms Shervington said the group was not asking those who made submissions to come up with a plan for the foreshore.
“We are looking forward to the community telling us what they would like to see and do along the foreshore. This submission process is a great chance for the community to tell us what they really want.”
She hoped that the local community would embrace the opportunity and they were looking forward to a dynamic foreshore that the community would enjoy for years.
“We would hope that we would have a list of features, elements, connections that people want to see.”
Cr David Reid wanted to know if after the design process had been decided there would be an opportunity in the next stage to invite partnerships from private enterprise.
“Funding is always the biggest issue,” he said.
Ms Shervington said that was outside the group’s brief.
Mr Martin said it might take five years or more to get the plan to fruition.
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