Ramsgate baths beach has disappeared, creating a major headache for Nippers organisers and potential danger for all users.
The swimming enclosure is the latest casualty of continuing sand movement along the eastern side of the bay, blamed largely on dredging for the expansion of Port Botany.
Sandringham baths suffered the same fate in 2013-14, while Dolls Point baths were abandoned a year ago after the swimming area became full of sand.
The state government has so far refused to provide major funding to address the situation despite a study commissioned by the former Rockdale Council blaming the situation on state government works.
President of Ramsgate Life Saving Club Andrew Tsounis, who was elected this month to Bayside Council, said the state government needed to begin a dredging and sand renourishment project for the beach between Ramsgate and Sandringham.
Cr Tsounis said the club would be “having this conversation” with the new council this week.
“It’s not good for the Nippers and it’s not good for the people who use the beach,” he said.
Cr Tsounis said, while beach events could be moved along the foreshore, officials wanted swimming events to be inside the baths.
However, partly submerged, moss covered rocks near the seawall posed a danger, particularly for young participants, while the loss of beach made it “more complicated” to hold board events for older competitors.
A Bayside Council spokeswoman said the state government “has a responsibility to address the ongoing sand erosion issues along the foreshore of Botany Bay”.
“Investigations have identified that works in the bay over several decades linked to the port and airport have changed the nearshore waves, leading to erosion,” she said.
“Council is calling on the state government to address the issue.”
Roads and Maritime Services, which has responsibility for waterways, would not say whether it was prepared to take action to restore the beach at Ramsgate baths.
“Roads and Maritime continues to work closely with Bayside Council to address the issue of erosion at Lady Robinsons Beach,” a spokesman said in a statement.
”Since November, 2015, Roads and Maritime has issued grants from a pool of up to $440,000 for the council to carry out and manage remediation work at the beach.
“The council is responsible for Lady Robinsons Beach above the high water mark.”
The stand-off has been going on since before Ayman Ksebe, five, drowned in open waters next to the unusable baths at Dolls Point, a few days before Christmas in December, 2013.
