A public meeting to give locals the opportunity to hear from experts on the many major concerns relating to the Oval Car Park development application, will be held on Sunday (June 5) at the St Mary’s Parish Hall, Cnr Whistler and Raglan Streets, Manly at 2pm. (More details here).
Arranged by the Save Manly Oval Alliance the meeting is expected to attract hundreds of concerned residents many of whom have been fighting against the Manly Oval Car Park proposal since 2012. “Save Manly Oval Alliance is seeking legal advice on how the process has been handled by the former Manly Council which pushed through this DA just days before the amalgamation was announced”, said President Jack Steggall. “In the meantime we have only until June 17 to lodge submissions against the many issues associated with this controversial DA”, he explained. According to the Alliance, who are engaging independent experts to prepare reports on the various aspects of the DA, there are serious flaws with the oval car park plan. PLEASE SEND IN A SUBMISSION - See Below for Key Points How To Oppose Manly Oval Car Park Development Application 1. Email your submission to: records@manly.nsw.gov.au 2. Quote DA 116/2016 3. There is no set format for submissions. Cover the points that concern you the most. See list below for ideas. Object to the DA and ask the Joint Regional Planning Panel reject it. 4. Include your full name and address for verification purposes. 5. Submissions close 17th June – so don’t delay! Independent Experts Have Identified the Following Issues: Heritage
Sports and Public Recreation
Public Safety
Roads and Traffic Impact
Environment
Financial Analysis
Breach of DA Processes
For More Information go to: Save Manly Oval Alliance. www.SaveManlyOval.com.au
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Wondering where you can park on the Northern Beaches under the new universal one sticker parking system? Under the new Northern Beaches Council, residents displaying a beach and reserve parking permit, a Pittwater, Warringah or Northern Beaches permit sticker will have free parking at over 40 locations on the Northern Beaches. Manly residents will be sent a parking permit sticker within three weeks. Former Manly Council residents who park in the former Pittwater and Warringah Council areas need to buy a parking ticket until they receive the new parking permit sticker. They also need to enter their vehicle registration for their digital permit in former Manly Council areas such as at the Manly beachfront, until they receive their Northern Beaches sticker. Some restrictions apply:
Birdwood Park, North Narrabeen Beach, Mid Narrabeen, Narrabeen St Beach Carpark, Robertson St Beach Carpark, Devitt St Beach Carpark, Collaroy Beach North, Collaroy Beach South, Fisherman’s Beach, Long Reef Beach, Dee Why Beach, Dee Why Headland, North Curl Curl , Mid Curl Curl, South Curl Curl, McKillop Park Reserve, Freshwater Beach, Moore Road, Freshwater (beach end), Gore Street, Freshwater, Jamieson Park, Middle Creek Reserve, Manly Dam, Avalon Beach, Bilgola Beach, Clareville Beach, Governor Phillip Park, Palm Beach, Mona Vale Beach, Newport Beach, North Narrabeen Rockpool, Ocean Road, Palm Beach, Warriewood Beach, Bayview Baths, Bilarong Reserve, Pittwater Park, Palm Beach, Winnererremy Bay Reserve, Whale Beach, Shelley Beach, Clontarf, Sandy Bay, Spit Bridge. Note: There are areas where parking permits ARE NOT VALID, including: Rowland Reserve, Bayview, Church Point Reserve, Church Point, Woorak Reserve and Iluka Park, Palm Beach. How it works
For more information on the One Council - One Beach Parking System visit: www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au (Information provided by Dick Perssons, Administrator, Nth Beaches Council) What do you think? Is this going to be good for Manly residents? At midday on Thursday 12th May the Proclamation was published abolishing Manly, Warringah & Pittwater Councils and creating one Northern Beaches Council, to be run by an Administrator until the next Council elections in September 2017. By the end of the day Councillors were notified by staff that their emails had been switched off and access keys decommissioned. All Resident Community Precinct Groups were told they were disbanded. The community was in shock – it all happened so fast.
Enter the Administrator … Dick Persson has been appointed by the Premier to form the new Council. (Mr Persson is well-known and highly regarded as the former Administrator of Warringah Council from 2003-2008). He quickly appointed former Pittwater General Manager, Mark Ferguson, as the overall GM, with Henry Wong (Manly) and Ric Hart (Warringah) as Deputy GMs, along with the existing six Deputy GMs. All general staff have been guaranteed their jobs for three years. However some changes will obviously need to be made at the top level. Former Councillors were contacted by the Administrator and invited to continue contributing on interim committees. One Week Later …. The first Extraordinary Council Meeting was called on 19th May by the Administrator, at the former Manly Council Chambers. A packed gallery was personally greeted by Mr Perssons, “call me Dick”, setting the tone for a relaxed and engaging meeting. One hour was set aside for the public forum with 15 speakers addressing issues such as the Oval Car Park (of course), Manly2015 Plan, Plastic Free July, Sydney Road upgrade, the future role of precincts and cost issues in relation with the new Swim Centre. Mr Persson was attentive, polite and asked questions. One Northern Beaches Parking Sticker The Administrator replaces the Councillors, therefore any matter on the agenda, he decides. First item of business – he initiates one Northern Beach parking sticker, effective immediately, although Manly residents will need to wait three weeks for new stickers to be issued. He stated that while technology can generally be a good thing, in the case of ticketless parking meters this clearly had not worked. Manly ratepayers will get their parking stickers back! This will entitle us to park anywhere on the Peninsula - at the beaches, parks and reserves for free all day; and four hours will remain at Manly beachfront, Shelly Beach, Clontarf, Sandy Bay and Spit Bridge. Each household will receive two stickers, which will be posted in the next couple of weeks. Manly Precinct Forum Groups The Premier, Mike Baird, has given an undertaking that the precincts are to continue under the interim Council. It is expected that the Administrator will address this issue shortly. Council Interim Committees Former Mayors Jean Hay and Michael Regan, and former Deputy Mayor, Kylie Ferguson, will be part of a newly established Implementation Advisory Group, and will chair new Local Representation Committees made up of many former councillors from all three councils. These committees, under the headings of Social, Environment and Economic, will provide advice and guidance to the Administrator. The next Council elections will be September 2017. One Point Of Interest … Mr Persson stated that overall the Government received 28,000 submissions in relation to the state-wide amalgamation proposals, 18,000 were from the Northern Beaches with the majority supporting one council. The meeting concluded with the public invited to stay for refreshments. The next meeting will be held at Pittwater in two weeks, and future meetings will rotate amongst the old council areas for the time being. In the meantime it is business as usual with Customer Service Counters operating at Manly, Pittwater and Dee Why. The Save Manly Oval Alliance has now briefed the Environmental Defenders Office which is obtaining senior legal advice about the strength of a legal challenge and the likely outcome against the Oval car park development. This course is looking very positive. In addition experts have now been engaged to contribute to a substantial submission that is being prepared, addressing the development application for the Oval Car Park. (Submissions close June 17, 2016 and can be sent to records@manly.nsw.gov.au) A Public Meeting is being organised for Sunday 5 June, 2pm at the St Mary’s Parish Hall, corner Raglan and Whistler Streets, Manly. This will provide the opportunity for residents and concerned locals to hear first-hand from leading experts on the issues of flooding, traffic, heritage and why a car park in this location simply won’t work. Fighting Fund In addition to very generous donations from our local residents, the business community has now come on board following a briefing meeting last week. It is anticipated that $40,000.00 will need to be raised. The Fighting Fund has already raised around $20,000. Please support the campaign by donating at www.savemanlyoval.com.au Representation has also been made to the newly appointed Administrator of the Northern Beaches Council. The Alliance continues to grow in support. We can still stop this crazy plan! TTwo thousand cigarette butts. That's how many are collected from Manly Cove every week by local cleanup group Bommie Australia. That's 10,000 a month! Organiser Jude Furniss said it takes the group just one hour to collect the rubbish. "It's an absolute disgrace," said Good For Manly president and former Manly Councillor Candy Bingham. "Congratulations to local groups who are working to fix the problem. But it should not be up to them to be responsible for Manly's rubbish collection." Smoking has been banned from Northern Beaches beaches for years, with Manly the first council to introduce a ban in 2004. But a spokesperson for the newly formed Northern Beaches Council said not a single fine had been issued in that time. Bommie Australia founder Jude Furniss said the council needed to do more to enforce no smoking areas, but the real solution was for smokers to stop throwing their butts on the ground in the first place. As well as organising beach cleanup days, Bommie Australia works to educate the community about the toxic effect of cigarette debris on our environment. Butts ends make an area look ugly and unloved, which often "permits" people to trash it even more. And when butts end up in the water - either because they were dropped directly on the beach or washed down through the stormwater system - they leach a toxic mix of chemicals, including cadmium, arsenic and lead, into our precious aquatic environmemt. As well the butts. which can survive in seawater for up to 5 years before breaking down, can be swallowed by marine life, including Little Penguins, with deadly consequences. "I am disgusted and stunned by people’s blatant littering and disregard for our beautiful surroundings," Ms Furniss said. "I'm asking smokers to clean up their act and take pride in where they live, work and play." Good for Manly says it's time for Council to take more serious action. Provide reciprocals for butts in popular areas, fine people who litter and encourage create marketing ideas to get the message across that there is no excuse - bin your butts! NSW We've done it! In a huge win for the environment, NSW is getting the Container Deposit Scheme that really works. The one that turns drink bottles and cans into cash. Under the new scheme reverse vending machines and bottle collection centres will provide an immediate 10 cent "reward" for every empty container deposited. In South Australia, where the scheme has been in place for the past 30 years, 80% of cans and bottles are recycled. It's expected to be the same here. And that's not all - charities, clubs and community groups have also hit the jackpot. For them access to extra funds is just one clean-up away. In SA $60 million was distributed in this way last year alone. It might not have been this way. The NSW government was fiercely lobbied by Coca-Cola and other big drink companies to implement their questionable Thirst for Good scheme. This scheme provided no direct reward, so no incentive, for people to recycle bottles and cans. Instead, if enough drink containers were collected a donation would be made to a pre-allocated or club. The drink companies fought hard for their no-incentive scheme, but the community fought hard too. "With Premier Mike Baird as our local MP, the Manly community has more influence than most," Good For Manly Cllr Candy Bingham said. "Congratulations to everyone in the Manly community, especially Manly Environment Centre and Greens Cllr Cathy Griffin, who fought so hard to get Mr Beard to make the right choice. Groups such as the Boomerang Alliance ran a strong campaign for change." Here’s how the Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) will work: • 10 cents will be paid for each drink container returned to a depot or reverse vending machine. • The containers must display a NSW CDS label, and be between 150ml and 3 litres. • Wine, beer, milk, and juice will not be eligible for the scheme. • Depots will be both large-scale operations and pop-ups. • Anyone returning a container is eligible for a refund. • Drinks containers can still be disposed of in council-run waste and recycling collection schemes, but the household won’t receive a refund. The 10c will go to the councils and will go towards waste collection costs in their local area. • The 10c refund, administration and handling fees, will be covered by the beverage industry. Next? A campaign for the inclusion of wine & beer bottles, which are a major issue in Manly's public areas. A fighting fund has been launched by the Save Manly Oval Alliance in a bid to stop the Manly Oval car park development for which a successful tenderer was selected by Manly Council on 12 April in an extraordinary meeting closed to the public. The DA for the carpark has been lodged today with the Joint Regional Planning Panel. It will be on public display for 28 days for comment.
Independent traffic studies have clearly shown that the proposed 500 space car park this will result in traffic chaos in Manly's CBD and surrounding areas of Fairlight and Balgowlah. The car park, which is possible due to the 99 year lease of the Whistler Street car park and Library sites for redevelopment, will only provide a minimal number of additional parking spaces, further away from the CBD.
It is a high-risk and expensive plan that will change the character of our historic Manly Oval for ever. The old car park and Library in Whistler Street are to be demolished for shops, apartments, offices and a new library on the 5th & 6th floor resulting in a major loss of ground floor community space. FUNDS ARE URGENTLY NEEDED TO: 1. Take legal proceedings in the Land & Environment Court challenging the validity of Council's tendering process for the Manly Oval car park and the Whistler Street car park and library site. 2. Challenge the Development Application for the Oval Car Park. Experts in traffic, heritage, hydrology and the environment will be engaged to prepare expert reports for the Joint Regional Planning Panel who will be making the decision on whether the project proceeds. 3. Pay legal fees to the Environmental Defenders Office to pursue these cases. Your support will save our Manly Village and unique Oval. TOGETHER WE CAN STOP THIS! Please help by Making A Donation - NOW. WHO IS BEHIND THE FIGHTING FUND? The challenge will be mounted by the Save Manly Oval Alliance (SMOA) which is an incorporated community association. www.savemanlyoval.com.au President: Jack Steggall, former local solicitor Vice President: Jeremy Bingham, former Local Government Lawyer & former Lord Mayor of Sydney Secretary: Roger Freney, economist and formerly Commonwealth Treasury Treasurer: Ian Jones, Chartered accountant Supporters include: Three former Mayors of Manly (ie Peter McDonald, Sue Sacker & Judy Mellows); former Local Member of Manly, David Barr; John Ferrarin former Director of JWT Partnership to name a few. See list here .. its impressive. New legislation will finally enable Councils to impound boat trailers if they have been parked on a residential street without being moved for a period of 28 days or more. Effective from 1 October 2016 the new laws will enable Councils to impound boat trailers if they are parked on a street for more than 28 days without being moved, irrespective of whether the trailer is legally parked and still registered. Previously the trailers could only be ticketed or impounded if they were out of registration, were considered ‘abandoned’ or had exceeded stated timed parking periods. Although the new legislation will still enable boat owners to park in residential streets provided they move their trailer within each 28 day period (at least as far as a different block section on the same street or to a different street), it is a good start. Councils will still need to provide notice of at least 15 days before impounding a trailer and the new powers do not apply to any other type of trailer (ie box trailers, advertising trailers, camping trailers and the like). While in most areas the issue usually only pertains to a small number of streets and individual trailers none-the-less they can generate significant local concern, particularly if the trailer has been parked for months and sometimes years. What do you think of the new legislation? (Source: Our thanks to SHOROC for this information.) The new Andrew Boy Charlton Indoor Swim Centre opens at the end of the month and yet Councillors still have not been provided with a business plan, despite repeated requests from the Independent Councillors.
At a recent Planning & Strategy meeting, consistent questions by Councillor Candy Bingham querying the costs of the new centre, and projected revenue, were met with a tirade by the Mayor Jean Hay that "such consistent negative comments are a disgrace". But the answers still have not been provided nor a business plan provided. "One has to wonder how the staff have come to the conclusion that a small gym operating in the centre, will attract hundreds of memberships at $2,776.40 pa with the cost of classes then to be at an extra fee. Clearly comparisons with other local gyms (of which there are about 15 at last count) has not been undertaken otherwise the fee proposed would be halved", Clr Bingham said. Apparently the Council will run all programs at the Swim Centre with the cost of lane hire expected to be prohibitive to existing community groups and established squads. Participants are also required to pay an entry fee. Warren Riley, who has been swimming at the Boy Charlton Pool since it opened is dismayed. He and fellow "While I have been vocal about whether the community really needed a new indoor swim centre of this size, nonetheless, now that we have it, it is important that it is accessible to the whole community. After all, we now have six pools, a steam room, sauna, spa and gym as well as a creche. Surely it makes sense to provide these facilities at a reasonable price to ensure that the swim centre remains profitable and popular", Clr Bingham concluded. Will you use the new swim centre? There is an interesting difference of opinion in the State government’s bureaucracy about proposals to increase Sydney Water’s plant capacity at North Head. On 22 March 2016 the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) released a draft report on Sydney Water’s proposed expenditure for the period July 2016 to June 2020. Sydney Water had sought funding for a project to amplify biosolids production at North Head Sewage Treatment Plant at a cost of $40.1M. They proposed to install two additional digesters to improve the plant’s capacity to treat sewage arising from the population growth in the catchment. IPART had engaged a consultant to consider Sydney Water’s proposals and they recommended that only one digester be approved and funding reduced by $13.3 million. They suggested that that Sydney Water had not made a strong enough case to warrant a second digester to cope with anticipated demand. IPART accepted this view. Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) response to the draft report The EPA was concerned that the proposed reduction in capital and operating expenditure will result in a deterioration of performance of Sydney Water’s sewage reticulation networks and treatment plants. Sydney Water’s response to the draft report Sydney Water maintained that the expenditure of $40.1 million for the North Head WWTP was required to address the lack of capacity in the digesters and other limitations at the plant. The drivers cited by Sydney Water for the expenditure at North Head included the plant’s reliability, performance, inadequate digestion, high transport costs and odour complaints as well as the plant’s ability to meet the environment protection licence effluent quality and load limits. The Community response A number of members of the Manly community, including the Manly Environment Centre, also made submissions on IPART’s draft report. Given Sydney Water & Coastal Catchments pay a huge dividend to the State Government (2015 - $664m and expected to be close to a $1billion in 2016) clearly the money is there to upgrade the facility - it is a no brainer. Sydney Water want it, the community want it and the growing population of Sydney needs it. We will be watching very closely how this interplay of opinions plays out and will keep you informed of the outcome. |
AuthorCandy Bingham, Deputy Mayor & Manly Ward Councillor on Northern Beaches Council. Background in marketing, public relations and community engagement. Author of five business books. Former Lady Mayoress of Sydney. Aka Candy Tymson. ........................................
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