In new submissions, lodged in response to the final shape of a Wollongong City Council management plan, residents of the nearby housing estates have blasted the embassy as ‘‘unsafe’’ and ‘‘an eye sore’’, which is ‘‘embarrassing because it looks like a tip’’.

The council has been trying to formalise its management of the area for years, and has recommended councillors vote to officially adopt the latest version at Monday night’s meeting.

But council documents reveal deep resentment and mistrust over the Aboriginal site, with the residents saying  council’s plan ‘‘only serves a few’’.

‘‘The tent embassy shacks should go...because they breach every building code and health standard,’’ one resident wrote.

‘‘Flying an Aboriginal flag has been a licence to break the law.’’

Some residents said they did not feel safe ‘‘having a group of men living unsupervised or unmonitored in a brush area next to a beach and walking track’’, while others believed it was ‘‘a haven for undesirables to gather and drink alcohol’’.

Others said they were happy for the embassy to stay but suggested it should take a different form.

‘‘Favourable consideration should be given to establishing a kiosk type of structure that provides a place for Aboriginal groups to hold meetings...’’ one resident wrote.

‘‘There should be no residential accommodation included at this site unless a justification is made as to why people need to live at this place or camp there for any period of time’’.

Despite the prevalence of these views, the council has recommended there be no change to the exhibited management plan due to the heritage significance of the sacred Aboriginal site.

The tent embassy was established in December 2000 in an attempt to block the nearby housing development, and its occupants have resisted numerous efforts to be moved on, several court cases and a 2005 arson attack.

After years of archaeological studies  Sandon Point was declared a significant Aboriginal place by the Office of Environment and Heritage in 2005.

‘‘The revised [plan] permits Aboriginal cultural uses and developments which uphold the values of the Sandon Point Aboriginal place and acknowledges that these uses and developments will change form and function over time to meet the evolving needs to the Aboriginal community,’’ the council said, in response to residents’ concerns.

It has also reached an agreement with the five different indigenous groups involved in the site and will form a Joint Management Agreement to consider cultural uses and development which ‘‘meet the needs of the Aboriginal people over the long-term’’.

Several respondents wrote in support of this approach, saying it was appropriate for the Aboriginal community to guide the site’s management.

OPPOSE

■  ‘‘Is the tent embassy still necessary? The people who live there don’t have running water, sewer or power and they live on council land. Isn’t the protest long over?’’

■  ‘‘It is unfair because one group of people have been given special exemption of the normal rules and everyone else has not, and antagonistic because the same groups had deliberately planted vegetation to obstruct the view of the estate under the guise of dune protection...I want no permanent structures, no flagpoles, no campfire sites, no showers, no nothing.’’

■  ‘‘I was enticed back to the Illawarra by the opportunity to build a home at Sandon Point with ‘never to be built out ocean views’...Over the years I have sadly witnessed first-hand the buck-passing of responsibility...and the apparent free reign of groups such as the [tent embassy] to carry out what must be non-supervised, non compliant and therefore illegal and vengeful planting and non approved infrastructure works.’’

SUPPORT

■  ‘‘Given the 200 years of denial of their language, culture and ways of life, it is imperative that the council implement a genuine spirit of reconciliation by providing assistance to SPATE in forms of their choosing. Council derives enormous revenues from rates on land wrongfully expropriated from the traditional indigenous owners.’’

■  ‘‘The Aboriginal presence at McCauley’s Beach is like the heart of McCauley’s Beach. We must show them the respect they deserve; they have lost so much of their culture with the Sandon Point and the McCauley’s Beach Estate housing developments.’’

COUNCIL

■  ‘The revised [plan] permits Aboriginal cultural uses and developments which uphold the values of the Sandon Point Aboriginal place and acknowledges that these uses and developments will change form and function over time to meet the evolving needs to the Aboriginal community.’’

■  ‘‘The main concern is that burials and reburials could be desecrated if no one is occupying the Aboriginal Place. How to manage that pivotal concern will be part of ongoing discussions at Joint Management Agreement meetings.’’