By Margaret Maccoll
The battle for Peregian Surf Club deepened this week following the release of a leaked email sent last November from Peregian Beach Community Association (PBCA) president Barry Cotterell to Noosa Council officers and Councillors.
The email advised of the incorporation of Ocean Life Saving Foundation (OLSF) with Barry as vice president and Sharyn Kerrigan president and registered its interest in using the surf club’s top floor.
The Foundation the email says aims to “promote and engage in activities which preserve life in and the health of the ocean and coastal environs”.
Peregian Family and Friends Association (PFaFA) which has assisted Noosa Heads SLSC to run the new Peregian Beach Nippers Program viewed Council’s call last month for Expressions of Interest to use the upper level of the clubhouse as a move that favoured OLSF which they “believe is a front group of PBCA”.
“Many people in the community are bewildered by the sudden and radical departure from what the Council position was last year when on 5 September Mayor Tony Wellington agreed to sign a long term lease with SLSQ to run the Peregian Surf Club,” PFaFA president Kane Livingstone said.
PFaFA secretary Leigh McCready said negotiations between Council and SLSQ that had continued after 5 September stopped abruptly in November.
In a PBCA Facebook post to members Barry Cotterell described PFaFA as a “Peregian Springs lobby group” and likened the “issue surrounding the surf club” to one of the “many battles against vested interests and developers hostile to our community’s village scale and welfare” it had engaged in over 20 years.
Barry rejected the implication OLSA or PBCA was being favoured but the post confirmed they were lobbying for OLSA.
“Members of the PBCA Executive have taken supporting roles in organisations that reflect our values in order to assist them with their establishment,” he said. “We did this for the Community House and now for the Ocean Life Saving Association.”
Barry posted on Facebook that PBCA supported the use of the surf club’s lower level for volunteer lifesavers and Nippers. However the leaked email says “the Foundation even has a substitute for Nippers called a Junior Ocean Awareness Program”.
Leigh said PFaFA would not be submitting an EOI because it believed both “the EOI has been set up specifically to award the top floor to the PBCA led Ocean Life Saving Foundation” and SLSQ advice indicated “the entire building and a long term lease (was needed) to operate and build towards an affiliated, sustainable, independent club in Peregian”.
A SLSQ spokeswoman said SLSQ were “yet to sight and consider the terms of the EOI so have not yet been able to make a decision whether to submit an application”.
