He reckons a group of locals took the issue into their own hands out of frustration.

“Council cannot get its tail off its hands long enough to properly address the issues and has to wait until the situation is at crisis point before they act.

“Without a doubt it was locals (who opened the lake at Sandbar) over a period of days. It would have been done out of frustration.”

Last week the Great Lakes Advocate ran a story on the opening which took Great Lakes Council and a number of residents by surprise. Judy Donnelly was worried about the environmental damage to the sensitive dune system while 80-year-old fisherman Lyall Bramble had his boats washed away by the resulting rush of water.

In the story, Great Lakes Council manager of natural systems Gerard Tuckerman expressed concerns particularly in relation to the danger it posed to public safety.

But Mr Nicholls is having none of that.

“I don’t think it’s dangerous. If you go down there right now you’ll see people with surf boards playing in the water.”

And although Mr Tuckerman explained there were plans underway to open the lake just days after the unofficial opening Mr Nicholls believes the lake had been left to rise way too high.

“The overfull lake, which had been that way for some weeks, was preventing several storm water drains from functioning as intended. A local business (Frothy Coffee boatshed and café) was in peril of going under and the sewer works at Tarbuck were partly submerged creating a real environmental hazard.”

In short, Mr Nicholls thinks council should be grateful to the unknown culprits for getting the job done and saving them some money.