Lake Cathie residents and Saving Lake Cathie members Stewart and Pattie Cooper raised their concerns after they conducted research and found council's Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) did not include the 1994 Estuary Management Plan or the opening strategy.

They alerted community members to the issue through highlighting their findings through the Saving Lake Cathie Facebook page.

Council has one Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) which was gazetted in 2017. This is the Lake Cathie CZMP.

Council's Environment and Regulatory Services group manager Debbie Archer confirmed this plan does not include the 1994 Estuary Management Plan or the opening strategy.

"The scope of the CZMP included the Illaroo Road Stormwater Re-Alignment and revetment wall," she said.

On December 31, 2021 all Coastal Zone Management Plans will cease to have effect.

"The crux of this is council will not be able to access NSW government funding unless we have a new Coastal Management Program written," Ms Archer said.

Council will be able to access funds under the new grant process when the PMHC Coastal Management Program is completed.

Mr Cooper said he's sad to see it's going to take such a long-term strategy to help the ailing lake system.

Council didn't directly answer a question regarding why the 1994 Estuary Management Plan and therefore the opening strategy, wasn't included as part of the previous Coastal Zone Management Plan.

Ms Archer said council is still in the process of writing the Coastal Management Program (CMP), however it's proposed Lake Cathie will be the first catchment to be investigated after the plan's completion.

In 2016, the NSW Government introduced a new framework to manage the coastal environment in an ecologically sustainable way for the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of the residents and visitors of NSW.

"The cornerstone of this framework, the Coastal Management Act 2016, requires Port Macquarie-Hastings Council to develop long-term strategies for the management of our coastal zone," Ms Archer said.

"This long term strategy is the Coastal Management Program (CMP) which is currently being written by council staff."

The first step of the program is a scoping study, which is expected to be completed by June 30.

The program will be made up of five chapters and the scoping study is set to provide an overview of PMHC as a whole entity.

The purpose of this, according to Ms Archer, is to allow council to identify issues across the region, to outline which catchment should be investigated as a priority.

"At this time, it is proposed the Lake Cathie/Lake Innes area be in the 2020/21 Operational Plan as the first catchment to be investigated," she said.

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