Cruise Ship Terminal - Now Called the Oceanside Terminal - the next stage
In the 2019-2020 Council Budget a sum of $1.2 million was allocated to continue to gather information for various reports on the cruise terminal and an Initial Advice Statement was lodged with the independent Coordinator General to determine if the project should proceed to being a ‘coordinated project.’ On 19th November the Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning, Cameron Dick, announced that the project had been given coordination status and that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) could now be undertaken. According to media reports the EIA would take around 18 months to complete and would then be rigorously assessed. (Gold Coast Bulletin article 20191119).
ON 20th November Gecko and Save Our Spit Association (SOSA) put out a joint media release outlining our views on the matter. While we would have preferred for the cruise terminal proposal to die a natural death, at least with the full EIA all those redacted reports should now become public and there should not be too many more closed door meetings . Our major concern is that the ratepayers will have to foot the bill for the EIA, which will run into thousands, if not millions, because Council is the proponent and not a private enterprise.
If the mayor does not win the Council election to be held in March 2020 then it is unlikely that the cruise terminal will proceed. (Media Release_Cruiseship coordinated project and then Gold Coast cruise ship terminal (GCB article)
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