MINUTES TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MEETING 10 May 2018 Contents Administrative Matters ................................................................................................................... 1 Update on SCCG Activities and Projects ........................................................................................ 3 Member Council Roundtable ........................................................................................................... 5 General Business............................................................................................................................ 8 Presentations ................................................................................................................................. 9 1. Administrative Matters 1.1 Opening - Welcome BA welcomed TC delegates to the meeting. 1.2 Attendance and Apologies Attendance and apologies are listed in the table below. Representative Council Attended Apology Ms Judith Betts (JB) Bayside Council Ms Jean Brennan (JBr) Inner West Council Ms Victoria Adair (VA) Northern Beaches Council Ms Ruby Ardren (RA) Northern Beaches Council Ms Jodie Crawford (JC) Northern Beaches Council Ms Niki Carey (NC) North Sydney Council Ms Bronwyn Englaro (BE) Randwick Council Ms Beth Noel (BN) Sutherland Shire Council Ms Jaime Hogan (JH) Waverley Council Mr Sam McGuinness (SMc) Waverley Council Mr Andrew Reefman (AR) Willoughby Council Ms Micaela Hopkins (MH) Woollahra Council Mr Geoff Withycombe (GW) SCCG Ms Belinda Atkins (BA) SCCG Ms Molly O’Halloran (MO) SCCG Mr Peter Steinberg SIMS (Guest Presenter) Page 1 of 10 1.3 Confirmation of Minutes Minutes of the Technical Committee meeting held on 22 February 2018 were distributed in electronic form to TC delegates. The Minutes were confirmed at the meeting. 1.4 Business Arising BA directed TC delegates to the update on actions for the Business Arising from the 22 February 2018 meeting, provided in the ‘Summary of Resolutions, Actions, and Outcomes Table’ in the 10 May 2018 Technical Committee Meeting Agenda. BA noted that three Councils had responded to the letter to member councils re: Coastsnap Program (Northern Beaches, Waverley and Woollahra Councils). BA to follow up with MH (Bayside Council), and contact Mitchell Harley (WRL) re: meeting with other interested councils (e.g. Randwick). BA advised that SCCG had received correspondence from DPI Fisheries regarding the SCCG letter advocating for a review of the applicable spearfishing areas (20m within each end of the beach) to address safety concerns. JB (Bayside Council) advised that the action to provide SCCG with legal advice received by Bayside Council, pertaining to coastal hazards, was currently with the Governance department. 1.5 Meetings The next Technical Committee Meeting is: Thursday 23 August 2018. The proposed meeting dates for the remainder of 2018 are provided below. Please put these dates in your diaries. • Thursday 29 November 2018 Actions: (a) The next TC Meeting will be held on Thursday 23 August 2018. (b) The next meeting to be hosted by Inner West Council (pending confirmation). (c) The Minutes of the TC Meeting held on 22 February 2018 were confirmed. (d) BA to follow up with Mitchell Harley and Bayside Council (MH) re: CoastSnap Program (e) Representatives to suggest agenda items for the next Technical Committee meeting at least four weeks prior to the next meeting. Page 2 of 10 Summary of Actions – 10 May 2018 Actions Lead Due date Status Administrative Matters Confirmation of Minutes Confirmed • Minutes of Technical Committee meeting held 22 February 2018 - - were confirmed. Business Arising BA 17/05/18 • BA to follow up with Bayside Council (MH) re: interest in CoastSnap program • BA to contact Mitchell Harley (WRL) re: interested councils and BA 17/05/18 potential for individual council meetings. Administration SEC 18/05/18 Completed • Thank you letters to be sent to Presenter and Randwick Council Next meetings • The next TC meeting to be held on Thursday 23 August 2018. • Inner West Council to confirm availability of meeting room to host JB / 12/07/18 next meeting. BA Update on SCCG Activities and Projects • BA to contact AUSMAP to suggest the Coal Loader as a potential BA 15/5/18 Completed ‘hub’ for the community. • BA to send around the draft submission on the Flying-fox Code of BA 15/5/18 Completed Practice • JH to provide contact details/information on the group action for JH 15/5/18 Completed higher performance targets for BASIX. General Business • TC delegates to follow up on 18/19 membership invoices and All 21/5/18 advise whether their council will be paying the invoice prior to June 30 or in the new financial year. 2. Update on SCCG Activities and Projects 2.1 Collaboration BA advised that SCCG are a project partner for AUSMAP and will be sitting on the project steering committee. AUSMAP is a citizen science program monitoring microplastics, being run by Total Environment Centre and Macquarie University, partnering with the Department of Education (EZECS), Take 3, Australian Association of Environmental Educators, SCCG, and other NGO’s and government departments. It was noted that a microplastics methodology was being developed for citizen science (schools and community) and train the trainer programs will be run. At this stage there will be approximately 10 hubs which will hold the AUSMAP kits which can be borrowed. Each kit can be used by 5-6 people and cost around $400. There are 5 kits per hub that can be borrowed. There is potential for SCCG to purchase a kit for member council use if required. Page 3 of 10 SCCG will engage with member councils on this program during the next 12 months and a microplastics program will form part of SCCG’s plastic plan underneath the new business strategy. BA will update the committee with the progress of the program. 2.1.1 Get the Site Right BA noted that the Get the Site Right Program was being run for a second time jointly by all the catchment groups with Willoughby, Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick and Northern Beaches th participating. The Blitz day was held on 16 May. 2.1.2 Regional Flying Fox Approach BA noted that SCCG were working with OEH on the regional approach to Flying-fox management. Two actions are being undertaken, including; i) the development of a map to be provided to councils for use in Grey-headed Flying-fox planning (e.g. LEP, DCP, Biodiversity Strategy, Management Plans); and ii) the development of a training workshop for council staff and community volunteers on the flying-fox count methodology to enable councils top undertake counts in between the current quarterly census. Council expressed interest in councillor education program. Currently waiting for LGNSW who received an Environmental Trust grant regarding training. Timeframes unknown at this stage. If this doesn’t go ahead SCCG will formulate a plan for a potential education / training program. 2.2 Capacity Building 2.2.1 Adapting Priority Coastal Recreational Infrastructure for Climate Change The assessment method and decision framework for priority recreational coastal infrastructure assets has been developed and trialed using nominated case studies from Member Councils including Northern Beaches and Sutherland Council. The Assessment Tool will be made available to Councils once the project has been launched (approx. July/August). The final report is being prepared. The tool is also applicable to estuaries. 2.2.2 SPLASH BA noted that SCCG has signed up as an in-kind member of SPLASH. As an in-kind member SCCG will work with SPLASH to provide various capacity building workshops around integrated water management; and climate change in relation to coastal management and water sensitive cities. BA will attend the first meeting on 26 June and report back to members. 2.3 Advocacy 2.3.1 SCCG Submissions / Reform Updates BA noted that the draft Code of Practice Authorising Flying-fox Camp Management Actions 2018 has been released for comment. SCCG has put together a brief submission document. Submission close 24 May 2018. BA noted that SCCG was hosting a workshop on Monday 14 May on ‘Implementing the Coastal Management Reforms’, including presentations from Bruce Thom, Santina Camroux and Bruce Page 4 of 10 Coates followed by member council workshops. The workshop is designed to help define where councils are in the process and collate this information to determine what SCCG can do to assist. 2.4 Research 2.4.1 Grant Applications It was noted that SCCG had supported various grant applications for the Environmental Research grants. GW advised that the application with University of Sydney on risk of antibiotic resistant gene pollution was unsuccessful. Waiting to hear whether other applications have been successful, including the application that SCCG put in with the Rand Corporation on ‘Sensing the Coast: Evaluating the Value of Emerging Technologies for Coastal Management and Protection’. 3. Member Councils Roundtable Delegates discussed their updates and relevant issues and needs. PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES REPORT • Developing an Integrated Water Management Strategy / approach • Large corporate day at St Joseph Banks Park • 12 bushfires affected areas of bush regeneration. • Draft Inner West Community Strategic Plan on public exhibition till 27 May 2018. Page 17 refers to the strategic direction that most aligns with SCCG. It was a win to have ‘ecological sustainability’ written into the Plan. • Recommendations of the Inner West Waterways report to Council on 24 April adopted with 2 additional