Residents of a beachfront community slipping into the sea are crying out for assistance while there's relief the latest storm deposited sand rather than took it away.
Legislative road blocks are frustrating locals from Wamberal Beach on the NSW Central Coast as the best way to protect homes and the public from dangerous erosion is still being decided.
Fears the damaging east coast low hitting NSW would exacerbate the erosion and endanger homes have been largely off the mark as the weather system actually fortified the beach with more sand on Wednesday.
But locals say the council and state government have neglected the fight to stop the threat ever since storms caused mass evacuations five years ago and houses still sit on degraded banks at the edge of the beach.
"We're in this constant merry-go-round of the government spending money, sending emergency works but refusing to have a look at any permanent solution," home owner Chris Rogers told AAP.
Debate on competing strategies for protecting the beach has complicated life at Wamberal, with some favouring a seawall and others wanting offshore sand nourishment, involving pumping sand from a tanker on to an eroded bank.
While Mr Rogers was part of a group who submitted a development application for a vertical seawall, he says he does not have a preferred method and just wants government action on a permanent solution.
Central Coast Council says it can't perform nourishment on the scale needed to protect Wamberal because state law prohibits it from dredging the large amount of sand required.
"Under current NSW legislation it is only possible to use marine sand for a public purpose," the council says on its website.
"This is not the case at Wamberal, where the primary purpose of mass beach nourishment would be to protect private land."
Mark Lamont from community group Wamberal Beach Save Our Sand, says there is a clear public purpose to protecting the beach from erosion through nourishment.
"There's a balance between fortification and beach amenity, the more rocks and walls you put in, the beach tends to suffer," Mr Lamont told AAP.
Despite the council's insistence nourishment is prohibited, NSW Premier Chris Minns reaffirmed his support for the practice over a permanent fortification on Wednesday.
"We haven't not (built a seawall) because we've been dragging our feet, we haven't done it because we don't think it's a good idea," Mr Minns said.
The state government told AAP in a statement they are waiting for Central Coast Council to submit a scope of works for Wamberal's reconstruction.