Alliance for Public Parklands objects to the GSP White Paper proposals.

Click here to read the Alliance for Public Parklands (APP) full submission which contains key concerns about the Greater Sydney Parklands (GSP) White Paper as well as Recommendation on the way forward for our Parklands in accordance with APP’s 8 Guiding Principles.

Rob Stokes, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, endorsed APP’s 8 Guiding Principles at a meeting with representatives of the Alliance on April 28, 2021, (with the exception of no.2, “Separate Management”).

Overview

We strongly support Minister Stokes’ championing of a vision for Greater Sydney to ‘evolve as a city within a park’ and his acknowledgement of the importance of parklands and open space to the health and wellbeing of the people of Greater Sydney. However, the APP has serious objections to the GSP proposal contained in this White Paper and what we perceive as a lack of focus on future-proofing and safeguarding our five iconic parklands – and also on its implications for public land use throughout NSW.

The APP group is unable to support the White Paper in its current form – it is long on rhetoric and lacking in crucial detail and commitment to genuine community say on the future of our precious parklands.

Each of the five parks has its own unique challenges and management issues (albeit with some common factors) which we believe will be compromised under the NSW Government’s preferred one size fits all GSP umbrella Trust model.

It is not possible for the community to make an informed decision on something as important as the future of our parklands without more information, clarification and explanation of the critical questions and proposals the White Paper raises (see Key Concerns).

APP agrees with Minister Stokes that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to elevate our parklands and create an enduring legacy for future generations. It took foresight and imaginative thinking for Governor Macquarie and subsequent NSW governments to allocate significant areas for future parkland. Similarly, it took the brilliance of George-Eugene Haussman to create the wonderful boulevards and avenues of Paris.

We want to see the Green remain Green and NSW leading a cultural shift/re-imagining of the way we see our parklands by adopting a philosophy of parks for parks’ sake and investing in the power of the natural environment as a public good.

This requires that the government returns management to each individual park; fully funds each individual park – and in the long run, creates more parks.

The parklands will ‘pay for themselves’ many times over and for decades to come for the innumerable benefits they provide to our citizens, as well as setting examples of best practice/excellence in habitat protection, ecology and biodiversity conservation if properly valued and managed.

We were buoyed when the Minister agreed with APP’s 8 Guiding Principles, (with the exception of ‘separate management’). It gave us a measure of confidence that there is common ground for us to be able to work together. But we strongly believe, in its current form, the vision contained in the GSP White Paper falls short and the Objects and purpose of the GSP need to be rethought and fully explained.

Future generations will have much to gain and thank this government for if it properly protects, enhances and nurtures our great parklands which are the ‘lungs of the city and the state’.