Eurobodalla Shire councillors with former general manager Warwick Winn (fourth from left). Photo: Eurobodalla Shire Council.
Eurobodalla Shire Council has released a probity report into the draft Batemans Bay Masterplan (BBMP), which has prompted councillors to call an extraordinary meeting for 10 March.
Following a question on notice by Cr Anthony Mayne, in May 2025 the council said it would seek a probity report. The report was due in late October. It was released on Friday (27 February).
The report said inception and governance of the BBMP exercise appeared to be informal without reasons for the need for an updated masterplan and clear direction being provided either by the council or the general manager.
It said a probity plan for the sale of the council-owned former bowling club site was prepared around February 2023. The plan indicates that the council was planning to begin discussions for the sale of the site and that a direct-dealing approach with interested parties was envisaged. One of the drivers of the masterplan is “developer interest as noted in the annotated plan”.
“We say we are committed to transparency and engagement, yet council appears to have had nil engagement strategy with our community,” Cr Mayne said. “A university professor and our community told us the plan was fundamentally flawed. They are right.”
Eurobodalla Shire Council owns 2 Vesper Street in the Batemans Bay CBD. Photo: Kim Treasure.
The report, written by Centium, noted that the Eurobodalla Housing Strategy 2025 would be a critical input into the BBMP, but the council did not endorse it until after the BBMP had been on public exhibition.
It said the council did not provide Centium with information on the outcome of community engagement regarding the vision for Batemans Bay, community concerns and issues, and how they were considered in the development of the draft BBMP.
The report said the draft BBMP did not appear to encompass/align with the Housing Strategy, Climate Change Action Plan 2022-2032, Coastal Management Plan, Batemans Bay Urban Creeks Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan, which is under development, or the flying fox management plan.
The report said the draft BBMP’s horizon of 75 years was “extremely long” compared with typical master-planning horizons of 25 to 30 years. Nor were the estimated population growth projections supported by experience or general overall trends in Australia.
The report is redacted in parts. It said there appeared to be discrepancies between what was recommended in the council’s Height and Density Study and the recommended heights in the draft BBMP.
“The Height and Density Study did not consider any limitations on account of geo-technical aspects, climate change and coastal erosion and any attendant management actions required to be taken.”
A screenshot of Eurobodalla Shire Council’s digital fly-through of its proposal to transform Batemans Bay. Image: Eurobodalla Shire Council website.
The probity report is not comprehensive. It noted that various council officers, “many of whom have since left”, managed the master-planning process that began in 2020/21 and that the approval/authority to change from a Batemans Bay CBD masterplan to a BBMP “could not be ascertained accurately as many of the involved officers at the time have now left the employment of the council”.
The probity report is silent on the input from property developers. It said the divisional manager, property and commercial services was in discussions with two developers for high-rise/tall apartment block(s) on the former Batemans Bay Bowling Club site. The discussions are on hold pending finalisation of the BBMP.
The report said councillors’ decision in November 2025 to excise the site from the BBMP addressed the council’s conflict of interest as property owner and planning authority.
One of the report’s six recommendations is that the revised BBMP include a clear description of how the council will approach the development of the site, including consideration of alternative uses for it.
It recommended that a council-endorsed direction for the preparation of the BBMP covering reasons for the need to prepare a masterplan, planning time horizon and governance arrangements for the project be included in the BBMP.
It should also include an explanation for the adopted increased population growth rate and number of dwellings that the BBMP will need to address, and consider climate change impacts including bushfire risk and coastal management.
The BBMP should include any limitations of infrastructure services such as water, sewerage, waste, energy and telecommunications, and any geo-technical limitations impacting the land’s development.
The council’s general manager Mark Ferguson said council staff had taken on board community concerns and suggestions and would combine these with the recommendations from the probity report to lay out clear options for the plan before future decisions were made.
