The Scotts Head Master Plan (SHMP) 2026 provides an opportunity to preserve the area’s beauty with a design that can also address increasing pressure from tourism. However, draft concepts in the Background Paper are NOT based on future predictions, relevant studies and are not reflective of contemporary urban design. A number of coastal towns with caravan parks functioned okay in the past but as visitor numbers increase and vehicle sizes increase, small coastal towns like Scotts Head are now seeing major & unsustainable impacts.

Qualified urban planning and landscape architecture experts agree - the location and extent of Reflections caravan park (a NSW state entity) impedes a number of potential design solutions that would be beneficial to the greater NSW public and exacerbates key issues (insufficient space and amenities in the key locations, and traffic and visitor congestion). No other caravan park on the NSW coast takes up the entire beachfront (safe swim zone) or completely blocks the commercial area from the foreshore. This is an opportunity to resolve current and legacy issues.

We have been given poor design options because Reflections has meddled with the process and the community are being censored from saying what we really want. Time for transparency, accountability and good urban design! 

We want:

• A future focused village-scale Master Plan for the next generation (30 years), based on population, visitor and climate projections.
• A Master Plan that balances the needs of residents, day visitors and overnight visitors (not just Reflections guests).
• Council to engage a multidisciplinary firm with consultants that have the right skills and are appropriately qualified for the job (transport, landscape architecture, hydrology, facilitation etc) via a transparent OPEN tender process
• A traffic and transport study and hydrology study to base draft concepts, designs and options on so they resolve current AND future issues and reflect inclusive, contemporary coastal Australian design
• Keep all large trees, especially the village’s iconic paperbark trees
• A minimum 45 day comment period for each round of consultation
• A process whereby the east end of the caravan park and West St entrance are options to increase parking, increase green space, improve traffic and pedestrian safety, retain our beautiful iconic paperbark trees and balance user needs going forward.

Both Evans Head and Kingscliff were successful in adjusting their caravan footprint - to open a connection from town centre to foreshore (Evans Head) and reduce the caravan park size to establish a public space connection between the town centre and beach (Kingscliff).

Sign the petition!!

Let's reimagine our future.

 

Why this matters:

• Scotts Head residents pay some of the highest Council rates in the LGA, yet receive little benefit or investment
• The Scotts Head caravan park is earning ~$4+mil per year, yet hardly investing much of that money to improve public spaces in Scotts (current arrangements in place since September 2014)
• The proposed 'solution' for Scotts Head Reserve will include the loss of very large, very ancient paperbark trees :-( when there are better solutions!
• One public amenity block (6 toilets!) for peak visitor numbers in the realm of 5,000-10,000 per week
• Sewerage treatment plant in Scotts Head was not designed for the tourism influx
• 36-year old playground that is unsafe, rusted with black mould, surrounded with mozzie & tick infested bark chips, despite Crown Land Manager having 12 years to replace it!
• Visitor numbers that increase every year and tourism impacts that go unmanaged (free camping in public parking areas where not permitted, 300+ dogs, 4WD on beach, cars driving on beach in daytime when not permitted, overflowing rubbish, human excrement in public places etc)
• Scotts Head foreshore areas are under a Plan of Management (POM) since 2014 but is not being complied with. The dunes have only recently received attention, after weeds have well and truly taken over
• NSW Crown Lands has locked the village in a governance arrangement where the community had no agency and no say about public spaces
• The only community in Nambucca LGA without a dedicated community centre, yet some of the highest council rates in the LGA

the list goes on...

This petition will be sent to Nambucca Valley Council, cc MP Michael Kemp, cc Office of Local Government and cc NSW Planning Ministers.

Have your say for Second Online Survey by 18 July 2026 and vote no for the 'loop road' option: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/scottsheadmp_round2

Background Paper link https://www.nambucca.nsw.gov.au/files/assets/public/v/2/community/2606-scotts-head-master-plan-background-paper.pdf