18 November, 2014
Clr Clover Moore
Lord Mayor,
City of Sydney,
GPO Box 1591
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Dear Clover,
We have received the Minister’s response to our
correspondence dated 11 November, 2014, relating to the proposed new school to
serve Pyrmont and Ultimo families. We
have also been briefed on recent meetings between you and the Minister, and
between you and community representatives.
We note that there has been no resolution to the
outstanding issues relating to the purchase price for the publicly owned Wattle/Fig
Street site, agreed unanimously by the Inner City Schools Working Party as the
only suitable site to cater for the increasing population of children in our
area. We are advised that a base price
for the site has been agreed but there are widely differing assessments of the
cost of remediation of the site.
Both the Government and the City of Sydney have
undertaken independent evaluations of the scope of the work required to remediate
the site but it appears that there is a $14.6M discrepancy between the two cost
estimates for the work. The City claims
that its estimate is based on the requirements of the EPA for remediating
school sites. We now seek an
explanation from both parties as to whether this is an accurate claim. If, as the City claims, the government is
requiring a standard of remediation that considerably exceeds that required by
the EPA, we wish to know why the goal posts have been changed and who has
advised such exceedance. We have asked
the Minister to provide us with copies of the advice you have received and the
EPA’s requirements. Similarly, we ask
that you provide us with copies of the advice you have received on the subject.
We are appalled that the NSW Government and the
City of Sydney have allowed this situation to arise. The Minister’s letter appears to indicate
that the Government wants to get out of the undertaking to provide a new school
at the Wattle Street site. We repeat
that this is the ONLY site available, given that the planners of the urban
renewal of Pyrmont and Ultimo failed utterly to provide for educational, social
and sporting facilities in this massive redevelopment.
In addition, you will recall that the Pyrmont
community, through CUPA and PA has been pressing for the development of the
Wattle Street site for public facilities since you were first elected Lord
Mayor. We identified this as a key
project in our Strategic Plan presented to Council for inclusion in its
Strategic Plan. We later included it in
our submission on the first Local Action Plan, and then the second Local Action
Plan which has never seen the light of day.
We will never accept its sale to commercial interests. It is our land and must be used to redress
the social infrastructure planning failures of the past.
We have reminded the Minister that the Government
is about to embark on a massive program of urban renewal in Central to
Eveleigh, the Bays Precinct and Parramatta Road, and has imposed the Darling
Harbour redevelopment on an area already stretched beyond the limit in terms of
social, sporting and educational infrastructure. All these developments will bring families
with children to the inner city. Provision of this new school will go a long
way to restoring community trust in the government’s ability to build not only
new buildings, but also communities which are underpinned by the social,
educational and sporting amenities provided by both State and local
governments.
Community members have given countless hours of
their time to this project over the past two years and there has already been
substantial expenditure on the planning for the school. We urge you to reach agreement with the
Government as not only the new school, but also the opportunity to address the
social infrastructure backlog are at risk.
Yours
sincerely,
Elizabeth
Elenius
