Category: Community Facilities

For over forty years the residents of Roseville Chase have been asking for a footpath to be installed at Babbage Road and it’s not difficult to understand why. On one side we have a cliff face and on the other side we have a narrow ledge. This road is the only way in and out of the area and without even a nature strip, all residents (including our school children) have no choice but to walk on the road to access the shops and public transport.

Council’s annual spend on new footpath construction is approximately $1.0m pa however due to the technical complexity of building this particular footpath (involving relocation of critical infrastructure), the cost (of at least a quarter of a million), the relatively low volume of users, and its distance from shops, transport hubs, schools and aged care, this particular footpath upgrade has consistently been low in the footpath priority list. I have been lobbying internally each year for this footpath to be built but it is ultimately an operational decision that is usually outside the influence of councillors.

This area is also known to have high speed vehicles and residents genuinely fear that one day someone walking on the road (not by their own choice) will get hit. I raised the issue with council staff and asked surely, there must be something that we can do at reasonable cost. If not a footpath, then at least some speed cushions to encourage vehicles to slow down around the bend. Staff consulted with local residents on potential locations for speed cushions and based on their feedback, the location of three sets of cushions and concrete barriers was established to encourage people to drive with care.

It’s sad that we had to resort to this (instead of a footpath), but it’s what could be achieved at low cost for now. I will continue to lobby internally for a footpath but for the time being I know that our residents are just a bit safer.

Earlier in the week we were at the park at St Ives watching the tree workers and excavators build the future High Ropes installation. Once complete, it will be a great opportunity for visitors to develop their skills and stay healthy.

A summary of the progressive opening and key dates (by AFR).

Undoubtedly one of the best parks in Ku-ring-gai for children under 2, we revisited this place recently (observing social distancing) and saw it with new eyes.

The lawn and path is fantastic for bikes and scooters. The upper terrace is great for social groups and badminton. And the shelter above the picnic area even provided a private space for teens (though I’m not sure if they’re meant to be up there)!

The land for this park was originally purchased from private owners with developer contributions under our Open Spaces Acquisition Strategy, and our council staff have done a fantastic job of making full use of the site.

During this lockdown residents have discovered some of our hidden gems such as Echo Point Park, Roseville Beach and Swain Gardens.

With increased use also comes increased demand for bins. I’ve asked council staff whether we can increase the collection frequency and/or increase the number of bins available for use. So far they have agreed to increasing the frequency to Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

At Ku-ring-gai we officially have hundreds of developments each year. Most of these developments, whether they be a driveway or fencing upgrade, a building extension, or a knockdown and rebuild, are supported by the following processes.

1. Development Application (including DA’s, MOD’s and Reviews)
2. Council Certified Application (including Complying Development Certificates, Construction Certificates and Occupation Certificates)
3. Privately Certified Application (including Complying Development Certificates, Construction Certificates and Occupation Certificates)

Council’s DA Tracking website allows residents to search for records in relation to the above. However one common problem for residents has been the topic of unauthorised works and the absence of documentation that supports it.

Once allegations of unauthorised works are raised, council officers will investigate and if appropriate, serve the landowner with a notice of intention to stop, demolish or remove the works. At this point the landowner sometimes has the option of fixing up the structure to conform with the rules and receive retrospective approval in the form of a Building Information Certificate.

These Building Information Certificates for unauthorised works did not use to be available on Council’s DA Tracking Database but after several negative experiences by our residents, I politely asked council staff whether we could do anything to improve transparency on the matter. And as of last month, residents can now look up the DA Tracking Database to confirm the existence of recently issued Building Information Certificates.

Ku-ring-gai Council – eProperty – Production – DA Tracking Application Search (nsw.gov.au)

Please note however that while the database includes all of the supporting documents for Development Applications, the other processes (certified applications, building information certificates) are not readily available from the database. It was technically too difficult to achieve. If residents want to access the supporting documents for these then they will need to lodge a GIPA (Government Information Public Access) application. More information about GIPA applications is available here.

https://www.krg.nsw.gov.au/Council/Access-to-information/How-to-apply-for-access-to-information

Starting tomorrow, green bins will be collected weekly (previously fortnightly).

Red bins will remain weekly and the recycling bins will remain fortnightly.

Yesterday the State Government provided new guidance urging councils to keep playgrounds open where possible, and today our council staff made the decision that all playgrounds will reopen from this Saturday.

Please note that under public health orders, no more than 2 people should gather (excluding members of the same household) and that we should continue to observe social distancing, good health and hygiene practices.

Personally I’m still reluctant to send my children to playgrounds if I can at all keep them entertained in the home, in the yard, or at other local walks and ovals. Delta is easily transmittable. However the number of cases in Ku-ring-gai is relatively low and like many other things in life, it is up to each family to make their own risk-based decisions on the risks vs. mental and physical health benefits.

For more information refer to the following links.

https://www.olg.nsw.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/COVID-19-guidance-for-councils-on-FAQs-17-August-2021.pdf

https://www.krg.nsw.gov.au/Council/News-and-media/Latest-news/Important-information-about-COVID-19

Several residents have asked about the Lindfield Village Hub Planning Proposal which is currently on public exhibition until 27 August 2021. At 1,288 pages, residents have said that the material was difficult to understand and did not know whether the Planning Proposal should be a cause for concern.

The short answer to this is that the land for the future Lindfield Village Hub is currently zoned for seven storeys but in order to improve the economic viability (and success) of the project, council is proposing to rezone the land to support nine storeys. The increase of two storeys requires a Planning Proposal.

I am personally comfortable with single-digit storey heights as it means the proposed buildings will be no taller than the buildings on the other side of the Pacific Highway. However what I am uncomfortable with as a councillor is that the Planning Proposal creates the possibility of a northern tower that encroaches land which was previously intended as green space under the 2015 Master Plan. The 2015 Master Plan provided for 3,000 sqm of ‘green open space’ however in more recent years the language has shifted to ‘plaza, park and open space’ to draw attention away from the anticipated reduction of green space.

In the future, Council will choose a delivery partner to design and construct the Lindfield Village Hub. It is my hope that we can choose a delivery partner who has the means to make the project happen with 3,000 sqm of green space to meet the recreational needs of our local residents.

In other news, the State Government announced last month that it had finalised negotiations with Council to deliver 135 commuter parking spaces for the Lindfield Village Hub. This announcement provides more certainty for Council as it seeks to progress with delivering the community facilities.

I have more to say about the Hub but will leave it for another post. In the meanwhile, if you want to check out the Planning Proposal you can do so via the following link.

https://www.krg.nsw.gov.au/Council/Your-say/Planning-Proposal-and-site-specific-DCP-for-Lindfield-Village-Hub-site

Last month Ku-ring-gai Council was one of only two councils in the Sydney metro area to close its playgrounds despite the absence of a public health order to do so. The decision by staff to do this was a conservative one made genuinely in the interest of our residents’ physical health, and in the context of ambiguous stay at home orders.

After some feedback from local residents, councillors and MPs, council staff have reassessed the situation and have decided that from this Friday (6 August), nine of Council’s playgrounds will be reopened to the public as part of a two week trial. These playgrounds will be cleaned and entry will require a QR code scan. Towards the end of the trial and depending on the situation with Delta at the time, council staff will then consider what to do next (e.g. open more playgrounds, leave as is, close the playgrounds again).

The nine playgrounds are:

• Queen Elizabeth Reserve – West Lindfield
• Dukes Green – East Lindfield
• Gordon Recreation Reserve – Gordon
• St Ives Showground – St Ives
• Putarri Avenue Reserve – St Ives
• Bicentennial Park – West Pymble
• Kissing Point Village – South Turramurra
• Cameron Park – Turramurra
• Wahroonga Park – Wahroonga

This news will be of great relief to some parents, especially those whose kids are stuck in apartments and going nuts. Having said all that, I’d like to remind everyone that we still have orders to remain 1.5m apart while exercising (if not in the same household). The Delta strain has also proven to be quite infectious and has a greater impact on young people than its predecessors so even as a parent, I’d be cautious about sending my children to these playgrounds. Keep an eye on the latest COVID sites, remember that there’s usually a week-or-so delay before the sites pop up on the case locations list, and make a risk-based decision as to whether or not you want your children to be out at these playgrounds (as opposed to running around an oval or walking around the neighbourhood).

Everyone, take care.

You can report issues through to council directly (kmc@kmc.nsw.gov.au / 9424 000) or reach out to one of your councillors.

When residents contact me, my usual approach is to go out to meet the resident, see the issue for myself, and discuss the likely options and outcomes. However during a lockdown it’s been more difficult and we limit the interactions to online.

In the picture provided, one of our residents reported last week that there was a slippery wooden bridge at Queen Elizabeth Reserve, West Lindfield, and that she had seen a few kids nearly slipping off their bikes and scooters.

I passed the details onto council staff and during the same week they went to the site, pressure washed the bridge, and sanded it to provide more grip.

Our resident then reported that it was much better and I passed the positive feedback back to our council staff.

I support Ku-ring-gai’s aim for Net Zero by 2040 and 100% renewable by 2030 (aiming for 2025) but why not aim for sooner? For electricity, it helps to look at real data to understand the challenges we need to overcome to get there.

This chart depicts yesterday’s power generation and demand for the National Electricity Market (NEM) which comprises all of Australia’s States and Territories except for WA and NT.

Australia is now at a point where ☀️ renewable energy is often cheaper to produce than fossil fuels, and and there’s going to be much more market-driven investment in renewables in the coming years. Yesterday we were at 40% renewable energy at noon when the sun was brightest.

However the sun doesn’t shine at night and the wind is not always available so we can’t rely on renewable tech along to get us to Net Zero. At midnight, renewables only contributed to 17% of our needs.

So how do we access electricity at the times when we can’t reliably generate enough from renewables? In the short and medium term this comes from fossil fuels, which provided nearly three quarters of our energy needs yesterday. And in the long term we hope to plug that gap through 🔋 energy storage; we hope to generate excess energy during the day then store up enough to last through the night. That’s a lot of energy storage!

Energy storage will come through a range of technology options which we have yet to fully master including lithium, green hydrogen and pumped hydro. There are various Australian firms innovating in this space and I’m sure Australia will get to Net Zero, though not within this decade.

Having said that, Ku-ring-gai Council will get to Net Zero earlier than the rest of Australia because we are already working on specific initiatives such as improving the efficiency of our assets, street lighting and fleet while also collectively sourcing renewable energy at reduced rates with other Sydney metro councils.

There’s a lot more that can be discussed on this matter so if you’re keen I’m happy to catch up sometime.

Council has closed the library, pool, and a range of other indoor community facilities in line with public health orders. Our sports ovals and customer call center remain open.

However at this stage Ku-ring-gai is the only council in the Sydney Metro region to have actively closed off our playgrounds. Some of our residents have found this strange, especially given the general support for outdoor exercise in small groups and also the school holidays, so yesterday I asked council staff to provide clarification on this matter.

At this stage I can say that there are some differences in interpretation of the public health order and our staff have reached out to the State Government for further clarification. In the meanwhile, staff have taken a precautionary approach by closing the playgrounds given the higher transmission rates of the Delta variant.

Personally I’m not informed enough to make a call on whether this is ‘right’, however I haven’t personally been encouraging my children to touch anything whilst out on the daily walk.

For the latest status on service & playground closures, refer to the link below.

https://www.krg.nsw.gov.au/Council/News-and-media/Latest-news/Important-information-about-COVID-19

🚽 Have you ever tried to use a public toilet and thought ‘eww this place is gross’? Each year Council upgrades some of its public facilities. Pictured below is an upgrade that happened earlier during the pandemic, where the prison-style toilets at Queen Elizabeth II Reserve were upgraded to something cleaner, brighter, with a functional mirror and energy/water efficient fixtures. It makes for a pleasant and safer experience for our residents at West Lindfield.

I met up with residents a few months ago to discuss safety issues on Lady Game Drive.

To improve visibility of vehicles at the roundabout, the feral hedge was trimmed back.

To make the entry to the roundabout a bit safer for pedestrians, speed cushions were added to slow the traffic (a request for a zebra crossing was declined).

Council also has State Government in principal support to install a wombat crossing (raised zebra crossing) at the school crossing on Lady Game Drive. Next steps with this is to find a source of funding the project, but I hope to see it in the near future.

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Here’s a video of a wallaby and her joey at Bates Park, 97 Babbage Road Roseville Chase. It’s quite sweet and there are more videos like this on the Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/kuringgaiparks/posts/780552675940365

Four years ago and just three months before the council elections (i.e. before my time as councillor), council voted unanimously to divest (i.e. sell) Bates Park. You can look it up in the council minutes, 13 June 2017, GB4.

Why does council sell assets? Well the theory is that underutilized assets are sold so that we have the funds to create new assets in areas where there are much greater needs. Some examples from recent years include:

1. Lindfield Village Green (under construction)
2. St Ives Basketball Courts (future project)
3. Marian Street Theatre (future project)
4. Cameron Park Expansion (required the purchase of 2, 4, 6 and 8 Gilroy Road)
5. Boyds Orchard Park (which required council purchasing 23, 25, 27, Duff St and 1 Holmes St)

Of course it would be even better if we didn’t have to sell any assets at all because once an asset is sold, it is very difficult for that land to be bought back. But the reality of how councils are funded in NSW is that rates are pegged and set by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, and the rates that councils collect often fall short of what is actually required to deliver services and assets to the standard that ratepayers expect. This puts councils in awkward positions where they then have to consider selling some assets to create other assets.

But while I understand the rationale behind asset sales and am sympathetic to the financial constraints that most councils face, the question remains. Should we be selling community assets and if so, which ones?

What about Bates Park (which the previous council has already authorized for sale but has not yet been sold)? Should Bates Park be sold? If it’s sold for half a million, is it a worthwhile transaction given the habitat loss for wildlife? What if it’s sold for 5 million? 50 million? Where do we draw the line between sell and no sell? And if it is ever sold, shouldn’t at least some of the money be reinvested in local infrastructure such as the footpath on Babbage Road that local residents have been asking for? [I’ll talk more about this in another post.]

I’m quite conscious that each of us live in homes which used to be bushland, so in some ways you could argue that it’s hypocritical for us to argue that we continue to receive benefit when others cannot. But you can flip it the other way and say that given the significant habitat loss already, should we not seek to protect what remains? Are there some parts of bushland that are more worthy of protecting than others? How many $$$ does an asset need to be worth before it is considered better to sell for development than to retain for wildlife? What if there are endangered species on the site?

Here at Ku-ring-gai, we often talk about heritage value and we go to great lengths to protect heritage. But I find that our views on heritage are quite limited to buildings. The moment there’s an old building of some arbitrary value, we’re quick to wave the heritage flag. But what about flora and fauna? Don’t they have some sort of ecological heritage value?

At this stage I’m not (officially) saying that there’s a specific right or wrong. I’m not picking sides but I want to draw out the issue and hear what you as residents have to say on the matter. Ultimately my job as a councillor is to represent you, and I cannot do my job without hearing what you have to say on matters such as these.

Let me know what you think. My job is to represent you.

Last year council asked us what we wanted to see in this playground upgrade and we said a larger fenced area with support for older children, better equipment and inter-generational play.

Council staff have now come up with a concept plan and we have til 7 May to provide our feedback for fine-tuning the design.

To look at the design in more detail and provide your feedback, please visit.

https://www.krg.nsw.gov.au/Council/Your-say/Dukes-Green-playground-upgrade