CENTRAL Coast Council will call on the NSW government to allocate $50 million from the coming state budget towards a "permanent solution" for The Entrance channel.
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The mayoral minute, raised by mayor Lisa Matthews, gained unanimous support from councillors at the meeting on Monday night.
The vote comes in the wake of flooding last month that impacted communities around the Tuggerah Lakes system, from Budgewoi and Toukley, to Tuggerawong and Long Jetty.
Angry locals whose homes and businesses were impacted by the deluge alleged that poor management of The Entrance channel had contributed to the duration and extent of the flooding.
They said insufficient sand had been removed from the channel by dredging, or by other means, and the resulting siltation had caused floodwaters to back up and inundate properties around the lake.
Council eventually excavated a second opening to the sea from the channel, and locals said it had an almost immediate effect in lowering the flood levels around their homes.
Cr Matthews said her mayoral minute deliberately made no reference to sand dredging, or breakwalls - the two most commonly discussed potential solutions to the siltation problem in the channel.
"I'm not the expert and, in fact, the state's put together an expert panel," Cr Matthews told ABC Radio Central Coast on Tuesday.
"We're really waiting on that panel to come together."
Cr Matthews said the issue "was much bigger than local government" and "much bigger than our council".
"We need that panel to give us ideas on what we need to do. That's why the mayoral minute termed it a 'permanent solution', and didn't label it, and say what the solution is because we don't know what that solution is right now."
In February 2019, the state government committed $200,000 to establishing an expert panel to determine the best way to improve water quality in Tuggerah Lakes.
Council has reminded locals the lakes are a state government responsibility, and that council's dredging program has been reliant on state funding.
