Published on Wednesday, 2 June 2021 at 9:24:29 AM
The need to protect the ‘unique, natural beauty’ of ‘local gem’ Parry Beach was clearly articulated by the Denmark community as part of the consultation process on the future of the popular location.
The valued community input is shaping the development of a Master Plan for Parry Beach with the first stage of community consultations concluding this week. Local consultant Bio Diverse Solutions is now preparing a draft plan to outline the path forward for the Parry Beach reserve, which incorporates research and stakeholder input, along with the findings from the community workshop and community survey which closed this week.
Shire of Denmark officers were pleased with the level of community participation.
“We had more than 40 community members in attendance at the Bio Diverse Solutions workshop in May and we received a total of 270 responses to our community survey which is a high response rate in comparison to other surveys we have conducted in the past,” Shire of Denmark Chief Executive Officer David Schober said.
“We know Parry Beach is an important place in our Shire for community members so we were confident our community would want to contribute to this project,” he said. “In the end, we had a good cross-section of the community represented across age groups which was pleasing to note.”
The community made it clear there was little appetite for change at Parry’s and a preference for proper consideration of environmental concerns and in-depth community consultation before any potential changes in future. Most said they would support the idea of an alternative access point to the beach if the current access point became untenable, while there were arguments for both allowing and removing vehicle access onto the beach.
The top three areas of concern identified by the community were congestion on the beach, coastal erosion and litter, while in addition, prioritising the needs of locals before tourists was a common topic raised.
Growth at the campground was largely an unpopular idea, with the majority saying they would not support an expansion of the campground to accommodate more visitors and a majority also saying they like the current ‘first come, first served’ system at the campground because it is more local-friendly.
“The next steps now are for us to await the draft Master Plan document which is being prepared by Bio Diverse Solutions,” Mr Schober said.
“We will be inviting our community to comment on the draft document before it is presented to Council for endorsement and we look forward to hearing the feedback.”
In the meantime, the Shire of Denmark encourages community members to visit the Your Denmark webpage to read summaries of the community consultation and to contact the Shire with any questions, ideas or concerns.
To find out more about the consultation process and the Parry Beach Master Plan, visit https://www.yourdenmark.wa.gov.au/a-master-plan-for-parry-beach
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