Three online public meetings to be held in October 2021, find our more about the Draft Exposure Bill and how it will affect the future of our precious parklands, and have you say.

An article in this week’s Parra News featuring Suzette Mead highlights the concerns advocacy groups all over Sydney have about the Greater Sydney Parklands Exposure Bill.

After careful consideration of the Bill, the Alliance for Public Parklands is unable to support it in its current form. Instead, APP is recommending an Upper House Inquiry into the Greater Sydney Parklands Agency.

The Alliance for Public Parklands (APP) launches its campaign calling on Members of the NSW Parliament to reject the Greater Sydney Parklands Exposure Bill in its current form.

In response to the Greater Sydney Parklands Agency Exposure Bill that was released today, a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by all parties of the Alliance for Public Parklands.

Alliance group members have formalised their relationship to enable them to take a coalition approach to advocating for the common interests of the five parklands.

As well as the group response from the Alliance for Public Parklands, the Alliance members and others have also expressed concerns in their responses to the white paper.

In its current form, the vision contained in the Greater Sydney Parklands White Paper falls short and the Objects and purpose of the GSP need to be rethought and fully explained.

This week’s Letters to the Editor, the Sydney Morning Herald, following the release of the White Paper captures the feeling of all of us in the community concerned for the welfare of our parklands.

A White Paper, proposing to legislate Greater Sydney Parklands (which for almost a year has been operating as a departmental arrangement only), was released on Monday for public comment.

The NSW Government has suggested that funding “Sydney’s best-known parklands” might come from transferring government land in “business locations” into a new Greater Sydney Parklands Trust.

Since our first Online Forum almost nothing has been reported about the agency which rolls the management of Sydney’s major parks Callan Park, Fernhill Estate, Parramatta Park Trust, Sydney Western Parklands Trust and the Centennial Park and Moore Park trusts into a single super agency. A new Board of seven directors was quietly put in place before the public was told anything about the new body. 

Linda Bergin OAM, Founding President Headland Preservation Group, says “Parks are now a sensitive political issue, and never more important thanks to our experience of lockdown. Any new act should give the community power over its 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.

The new Greater Sydney Parklands agency will oversee five parklands that have previously been managed individually. Some see the move as an outrageous obe. read this article By Matt O’Sullivan of the Sydney Morning about some of these responses.

The new Greater Sydney Parklands agency will oversee five parkland that have previously been managed individually. Some see this as an outrageous move. Read about some of the responses.