Jim Sanderson
Unnecessary Closure of Sessions of Council is Not Transparent
At its November 2023 meeting, Council made a number of important decisions while the meeting was closed to the public. As recorded in the publicly available minutes: one related to the sale of Council land ‘adjacent to 13 Euthella Ave Hunters Hill’. For the record, Councillor Ross Williams and I voted against this proposal. In my view, these matters required far greater public scrutiny, particularly at a time when Council is developing an Integrated Transport Strategy, which aims among other things to promote more walking and cycling, I am deeply concerned about the sale of land that has some potential to allow pedestrians and cyclists to travel under Tarban Creek Bridge, providing a third route to traverse Burns Bay Road – imagine being able to safely walk or cycle a reasonably direct off main road route between Hunters Hill Public School and Bedlam Bay.
Hiding Details of Budget is Not Transparent
At its meeting held on 26 June, Council adopted a budget with a total Income from Continuing Operations of approximately $25M, including an amount of $2.5M described as ‘Other income’. The only explanation I could find in the report and appendices (a total of 116 pages) of this ‘Other income’ was a reference in one of the appendices to ‘income derived from asset (surplus land) disposals (estimated at $2.5m).’
Put simply, the budget relies on $2.5M from the sale of Council land – that is 10% of Income from Continuing Operations. Selling Council land to fund continuing operations is not sustainable nor does it respect intergenerational equity.
More Proposals to Sell Public Land
At the final meeting of the incumbent Council, held on 29 July, Council by majority (Ross Williams and I voted against) commenced the process for the sale of another four pieces of so called ‘remnant land’. One of these is Lot 31 (16C) Vernon Street, a 527 square metre waterfront lot of heritage significance with a sandy beach, which is accessible from the Serpentine Road reserve. This land should be retained to allow access to a beautiful location the on the shore of the Lane Cove River.
Another proposed sale is a triangular 17 square meter area of land on the corner of Church Street and Reiby Road, which in the unlikely event of it being purchased by the adjacent owners corporation, could see the loss of a substantial street tree that marks the entry to the eastern part of Hunters Hill.
Works Depot at Boronia Park
In part of this meeting closed to the public, Council by majority (Ross Williams and I voted against) awarded a ‘contract for the construction of the Works Depot at Boronia Park’ with no details of the planned work publicly available and nothing publicly available about the future of the land behind the Town Hall.
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