Ultimo Public School 2014

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