Locals are alarmed by an Expression of Interest from Woolworths to turn the historic Oval into a shopping centre with two levels of parking above ground and the playing fields on top. The previously rumoured proposal by Woolworths has now emerged. Their ambitious left-field submission is for a shopping centre similar in size to Stocklands Balgowlah including a supermarket, specialty shops, a stadium/clubhouse and a 1000-space above ground car park.
The sports oval, tennis courts and bowling club will be reinstated seven metres - that's two and a half stories - above ground level. “You would think we were in Singapore not Manly. Why would we even consider building a shopping centre on this site?” she exclaimed. "Not only will we lose the whole of Ivanhoe Park including Manly's beautiful heritage oval, which is crown land, but the new development will gut retail in Manly's existing village centre and destroy Manly's most precious asset - its seaside village feel." Clr Bingham added “One has to question the connections between Woolworths, the Mounties and Manly Rugby Club. And why do the Liberal councillors seem so determined to push through a car park on the oval site despite major public opposition”, Clr Bingham said. Since the Manly2015 Plan was first released in 2011, Clr Bingham and many independent experts have questioned the financial validity of the oval car park project stating that the numbers just did not add up. Other EOI submissions received, which only focused on an underground car park, will no doubt confirm the long-held view that Council has completely under-estimated the cost of building a two level 760 space underground car park for the $34m budget allocated. Clr Bingham claims that the existing budget will only provide a smaller car park which will, in effect, just replace existing car parking spaces that will be lost due to the demolition of the Whistler Street car park and removal of parking from the streets. “It’s time this council either scrapped the oval car park plan altogether or shelved it until the next election. As for the Woolworths proposal, it’s an insult and should be immediately discarded”, Clr Bingham concluded. Expressions of Interest can be viewed here Woolworth’s proposal is A-4. Twelve EOIs were received for the construction of a car park on the Manly Oval site. They were: AW Edwards; Abergelidie, Built Athas, Cockram Pty Ltd, FDC Pty Ltd, Haslin, Hindmarsh Pty Ltd, Hutchinson Builders, Kane, Michael Campareale (Campareale Holdings Pty Ltd) Richard Crookes Pty Ltd, Woolworths. Three EOIs were received for the redevelopment of the Whistler Street site on a 99 year lease. They were: Built Athas, Grengate, Grocon.
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While the admission by Sydney Water that odours at North Head are of such significance that it has allocated $4 million over 4 years to solve the problem (Sun-Herald 10/5/15) is welcomed, ongoing community concerns about actual the treatment process continue. Toxic Mercury Pollution
Sydney Water has correctly pointed out that the level of Mercury falls within the limits set by the EPA but what is not stated is that the EPA has not reduced the North Head Sewage Treatment Plant licence for Mercury discharged to coastal waters since it was established in 1992. This is a matter of great concern to the Manly community. Treatment Process In relation to upgrading North Head Sewage Treatment Plant, Project North Head Upgrade 2003 documents costed all items and it is acknowledged that major funding was needed. However the community is concerned that: 1. The 1991 planned upgrade to the ocean outfall plants did not proceed. 2. The 2002 consultation process with the Manly community undertaken by Sydney Water identified Preferred Option upgrade to full primary with 65% solids capture and secondary treatment – all within plant boundaries. However, EPA said upgrading of ocean outfall plants was not a priority and the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal believed ‘that Sydney Water has not provided sufficient justification’ for the $6M they requested. Preferred Option did no proceed. 3. As Sydney Water fails to see or acknowledge that any improvement in the treatment process is necessary that this current licence review will not lead to any improvements as well. 4. The suggestion that upgrading the North Head WWTP to secondary and tertiary treatment would necessarily result in a footprint which would reduce the size of the National Park land is unacceptable – put the plant underground, decentralise/interception with treatment along the Northern Suburbs Ocean Outfall System that flows to North Head Sewage Treatment Plant. 5. Regarding biosolids truck numbers Sydney Water has repeatedly told the Manly community the treatment at the plant dictates the number of biosolids trucks and to minimise truck movements the treatment option would be anaerobic digestion followed by heat drying. Sydney Water states that 30% of solids are removed from the influent – that means 70% of solids are discharged to the ocean which is not acceptable. This is simply not appropriate to Sydney’s image as a clean city in the 21 century that we continue to dump our sewage in the ocean. It is worth noting that in a print article about the North Head Sewage Treatment Plant Mercury pollution, the Associate Professor at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering UNSW, Stuart Khan was quoted as saying “the real solution though would be to apply more advanced treatment processes, which are commonly employed at sewage treatment plants around the world. In the US, the EPA has banned the discharge of primary Sewage to the ocean”. It is time to start planning to implement the ‘ultimate aim’ of Section 27(1) of the Sydney Water Act 1994, which states, inter alia : ‘the corporation is to adopt as an ultimate aim the prevention of all dry weather discharges of sewage to waters, including from ocean outfalls, except to the extent that this is necessary to safeguard public health or prevent environmental degradation, or both.’ (Our thanks to Beverley Trevenen who assisted providing the facts for this article) The long-awaited updated hospital services for the Northern Beaches is now well underway with Stage Two planning approval granted this month to commence construction of the nine-storey, world-class hospital at Frenchs Forest.
The 6.5h site is now cleared and the shell of the hospital will be constructed first, followed by a 1400 space car park. There will be 488 hospital beds, including more public beds, bringing the total number of beds in the Northern Beaches Health Service to 554. This bed increase will be supported by a large integrated emergency department, state-of-the-art intensive care and critical care units and modern inpatient mental health facility. The Northern Beaches Hospital will provide a range of services including:
The hospital will be fully operational by late 2018. Lots of plans of underground car parks, and a number of artist's impressions of what could be redeveloped in Whistler Street, is the bulk of what has gone on public display as a result of the Expressions of Interest (EOI) process for the sites undertaken by Manly Council. But if you are looking for costings, the names of submitters linked to the proposals or any rationale - you won't find it. Manly Council has now released on public exhibition the EOIs received for their controversial Manly2015 Plan to build a car park under Manly Oval, and a 99 year lease for the redevelopment of the Whistler Street car park site.
Due to reasons of 'commercial in confidence', the documents are of little value other than to give locals and Councillors a glimpse of some of the proposals submitted. You can view here. The list of submitters is impressive, 15 in total ie 12 for the design and construction of the oval car park and three for the redevelopment of the Whistler Street site. Submissions for the car park were received from: AW Edwards, Abergelidie, Built/Athas, Cockram Pty Ltd, FDC Pty Ltd, Haslin, Hindmarsh Pty Ltd, Hutchinson Builders, Kane, Michael Campareale (Campereale Holdings Pty Ltd), Richard Crookes Pty Ltd and Woolworths. The three submissions for the redevelopment site were Built/Athas, Grengate and Grocon. So what's next?
"At this stage even the Councillors have not been given access to the full submissions although I will be pushing to ensure that we get to view at least the short list of submissions before the report is presented to Council", Clr Candy Bingham said. "These are the most significant projects undertaken in Manly for decades and is clearly high risk. The process to date has not filled me with confidence. Given the highly controversial nature of the Plan, it is imperative that the elected councillors are fully briefed before voting on the matter", she said. "Given IPART is expected to announce the outcome of Council amalgamations in October one really has to question the rush to go to tenders", Clr Bingham added. The challenge is quite simple...attempt to refuse single-use plastic during July. Plastic Free July aims to raise awareness of the amount of single-use disposable plastic in our lives and challenges people to do something about it. You can sign up for a day, a week or the whole month and try to refuse ALL single-use plastic or try the TOP 4: plastic bags, water bottles, takeaway coffee cups and straws. "Think about it...why would you make something that you are going to use for a few minutes out of a material that's basically going to last forever. What's up with that?" - Jeb Berrier, BagIt movie. Manly Council is supporting Plastic Free July with a number of initiatives including a free screening of “Bag It” at Balgowlah RSL on the evening of 1 July, information workshops and the distribution of re-usable vegetable bags. For its part, Coles stores in the area will be training staff to encourage customers to reuse bags, by offering three enviro bags for $1, and providing in-store promotions encouraging customers to ‘Take the Challenge’. Four stores are participating including Manly Corso and Wentworth Street stores, Stocklands Balgowlah and Manly Vale. A poster competition through local schools is also being arranged with Coles donating three park benches (made completely from recycled plastic) to the top three posters. Individual winners will also, of course, be rewarded. You can participate in Plastic Free July by registering to ‘Take The Challenge’ at the official website: plasticfreejuly.org. So What Happens to Our Plastic Bags? 50 million shopping bags end up in the environment in Australia each year ( *Clean up Australia) A rare Rissos Dolphin and 240kg Leatherback Turtle recently died locally in NSW from Plastic bag ingestion ( *NPWS/ Taronga Wildlife Hospital) Plastic breaks up - it becomes smaller and smaller pieces, but remains plastic. Marine life mistake these particles for food. The average usage time of a plastic shopping bag is 7minutes Australians use 3.92 billion plastic bags a year, that's over 10 million new bags being used every day. ( *Clean up Australia) Australians dump 7,150 recyclable plastic bags into landfills every minute or 429,000 bags every hour. ( *Clean up Australia) |
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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