An update on some major Council works
Bob Campbell Oval
When I was elected to Council in December 2021, I undertook to support a move to cancel the plans for synthetic turf on Bob Campbell Oval.
On 24 January 2022, I, and seven other Councillors, voted to do just this.
Construction of the new natural turf sports field is now underway. It is a big project.
Returfing and other works underway at Bob Campbell Oval.
Some design features, like an enclosed dog area at the northern end and a relocated playground on the harbour side of the aqueduct, do not reflect the Master Plan developed by the BCO community working group. They derive from a 5-4 decision of Council on 24 February 2024 to delegate to the General Manager authority to negotiate a contract for works with Landscape Solutions Pty Ltd.
The project works do not include an important public safety element – the shared user path up the St Vincents Road hill from the oval to Gore Street.
Council officers have advised that this will be delivered between July and September 2025 from a separate Council funding source.
And the Sport and Recreation Facility
A far larger project is underway on River Road – the $81 million Sport and Recreation project.
Works underway on the $81 sport and recreation facility.
Indoor sporting facilities on the lower North Shore are in short supply.
This is an expensive project to be funded by a small metro Council like Lane Cove.
For this reason, I had hoped that it could have been built in conjunction with Willoughby Council at a location better served by public transport and cycle links.
But with a 4-4 vote and use of a casting vote, Councillors voted to proceed.
The project is now well under way and I support its completion.
I had hoped that Councillors may have been kept in the loop about risks to the project timeline, scope and budget. It has been disappointing to find that the Project Control Group knew of risks to the project scope and timeline and consequent potential risk to the approved budget at least 5 months before Councillors were advised.
Hopefully project risk has now diminished and the community (and particularly Councillors standing for election) will soon have information about the final project variation cost.
And, as with the case for BCO, it is anticipated that the community will soon have confirmation that, in conjunction with the facility completion, a safe shared user path from both east and west on River Road will be delivered to facilitate access to the sports facility and a safe access to Northwood will be in place. The cost of these are not included in the project budget but will come from other sources.
And after these projects are completed?
Time to take stock of the assets we have. Many of our buildings, our heritage items, footpaths, bushland and waterways have been allowed to deteriorate – Council should prioritise funding for their improvement or repair
Provide for maintenance of the expensive assets that we have recently created, so future generations of rate payers are not encumbered by major work down the track
Conduct a thorough audit of all our facilities to ensure best use for all community stakeholders
And work with adjacent LGAs to share the cost of and access to resources and services.
