From time to time we receive complaints about the Coles development at Balfour Street Lindfield, primarily in relation to traffic delays that it causes on Balfour Street and perceived breaches of the conditions of consent which say “𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘯𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘷𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘉𝘢𝘭𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘱-𝘰𝘧𝘧 (8:00𝘢𝘮 𝘵𝘰 9:30𝘢𝘮) 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘶𝘱 (2:30𝘱𝘮 𝘵𝘰 4:00𝘱𝘮) 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴.”
Residents have also said that council has done nothing to prevent these perceived breaches but that is not the case. The construction site has been fined over $80,000 to date for various offences.
I think it’s important to break down what is and is not a breach, because we will have many more construction sites like this in the years to come as part of the TOD precinct.
So I went down there yesterday morning to observe what was going on.
First of all, this condition of consent applies to construction vehicles. That means concrete trucks, excavators, demolition trucks, heavy transport.
The condition of consent applies to construction vehicle MOVEMENTS which means that if we see a construction vehicle parked on the street but it is not moving, then it is not a breach.
There are other things like forklifts, cranes, machinery, scaffolding, which are counted as plant and equipment. In other words, forklifts are not construction vehicles, they are plant. And if you see a forklift driving or a crane operating during those peak hours then there is no breach because they are not construction vehicles.
What was annoying, however, is that from time to time the lollipop ladies would pop out and block off traffic along the entire street so that the forklifts can pickup skip bins, etc. This probably took up 5 of the 90 minutes that I was there, and if I was a resident driver on Balfour Street waiting to get to work, I would be very annoyed and blame Coles for everything….. I gave our Director of Regulation a call and he explained to me that the lollipop ladies were part of the construction traffic management plan, and that the intent of the condition of consent was to prevent heavy construction vehicles from hurting pedestrians from a SAFETY perspective. That is, the condition of consent was not designed to optimise traffic flows, and there will always be some level of disruption associated with construction.
I did also see two skip bin trucks moving that morning, but the Director said that these were not construction vehicles. They were ‘ephemeral’ and only there to quickly pick up or drop off something before they were gone. He explained that the condition of consent was with regard to longer, more drawn out activities.
I also saw five concrete trucks pop out from Bent Lane turning right onto Balfour Street, before turning right onto Pacific Highway. While these do count as construction vehicles, they were not in relation to the Coles Development so their movements are not a breach of the conditions of consent.
Out of all the things that I observed, there was only one thing that the Director agreed was illegal. I noticed that the utes on Balfour Street were parked for longer than the 1 hour allowed. The Director said that rangers do come here from time to time to issue fines, and that he’d send rangers onto this case.
So other than the illegal parked utes, it was a relatively good morning for the construction firm. But just because they were good this morning, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re like this all the time. They have been fined over $80,000 to date after all.
But we shouldn’t jump to conclusions that they are breaching the conditions of consent or that council is doing nothing about it just because we see a few lollipop ladies and forklifts moving around.
Whether the conditions of consent should be broadened to cover lollipops and forklifts is a separate point of debate, but those are not the conditions of consent for this particular site.
And if you do see anything that you suspect is actually illegal, please let us know straight away.
