Councillors worried about threats to parks.
Minister Rob Stokes announced a new 50-Year Vision for Greater Sydney’s network of parklands and green open spaces. This article explains the concerns of local councillors including Inner West Council mayor Darcy Byrne who fears Callan Park may suffer.
Read the transcript of the article below.
Agency sparks park privatisation fear.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 July 2020
by Megan Gorrey
The Berejiklian government's plan for a super agency to oversee Sydney's most famous parklands will not provide the same protections as a public trust, the Labor mayor of the Inner West Council has said.
The NSW government last week said it would scrap the Centennial Park and Moore Park, Parramatta Park and Western Sydney Parklands trusts and fold them into a new agency known as Greater Sydney Parklands.
The agency will also oversee Callan Park in the city's inner west, and the historic Fernhill Estate near Mulgoa on Sydney's western fringe. Michael Rose will head the board of the new agency.
Inner West Council's Labor mayor Darcy Byrne said the agency would not provide the protection of a public trust and that council had been fighting for the establishment of a Callan Park Trust to protect the park.
"I am proposing to Mr Rose and [Planning and Public Spaces Minister Rob Stokes] that a Callan Park board be established to make sure local people, community organisations and the council are able to contribute to improving our much-loved park," Cr Byrne said.
"There is a real danger that if the only governance of Callan Park is conducted from the offices of the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, the site will continue to fall into disrepair or, worse yet, be sold off or developed."
Cr Byrne said councillors resolved unanimously to examine whether the council could move some operations into Callan Park in a bid to protect its recently vacated Kirkbride buildings.
City of Sydney Labor councillor Linda Scott said the independence of the Centennial and Moore Park Trust protected the site from "repeated state government attempts to commercialise this space".
"To dismantle this is to open the floodgates of profit on to our public parkland," Cr Scott said.
Labor sport and recreation spokeswoman Lynda Voltz said the changes could render the government vulnerable to legal action.
Mr Stokes has said the aim of an overarching agency was to find ways to better manage, restore and expand Sydney's parks.
