Posted on December 7, 2015
MP News reports that a business case for expanding the Port of Hastings should include compensation the owners of property affected by dredging in the bay.
Experts estimate 24 million cubic metres of spoil will be dredged from alongside wharfs and in shipping channels, severely affecting Western Portโs marine environment and increasing coastal erosion.
The call to establish a compensation fund was included in a submission by the Preserve Western Port Action Group (PWPAG) to a select committee hearing into the state governmentโs proposed leasing of the Port of Melbourne.
Funding for the governmentโs plan to reduce the number of rail level crossings is expected to come from the 50-year lease, which effectively rules out development of a container port at Hastings.
PWPAG chairman Jeff Nottle said any business case for expanding the port at Hastings โneeds to include all the costs that impact on the regionโ.
These impacts included โincreased erosion and sediment flows arising from the dredging in a very high tidal flow environmentโ and the acceleration of erosion โparticularly in the north of the bay and on the north shore of Phillip Islandโ.
