For sale: Liverpool parkland
By Mark Skelsey - The Daily Telegraph (NSW Metropolitan, 27 July 2005)
WHILE most NSW council leaders are passionate about saving their public parks from development, Liverpool administrator Gabrielle Kibble seems to be heading in the other direction.
Ms Kibble has been forced to defend comments made in an internal consultant's report that a council precinct had "too much |
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Plans...Liverpool from the air. |
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green on the map" and asked how the council could "justify this much open space".
She is under fire for using open space and property sales to bail out the southwestern Sydney council from its pressing financial problems.
The report dated May 2004, uncovered by a community group, examines the potential sale of open space around Collingwood House, Australia's fifth oldest residence.
A page with the heading "council administrator" has several comments attributed to Ms Kibble.
These include "it has no attractions as a park, how can we justify this much open space" and "there is too much green on the map, it tends to be the 'space left over after planning'."
"There are many parks in Liverpool that are not being used, there is one near the depot," is another comment, along with "important to understand the cost of maintaining open space".
The reference to the "park near the depot" is to Paciullo Park, which is part of a separate 17ha land parcel about 700m from Collingwood House.
Ms Kibble last month agreed to sell this parcel to the Macquarie Bank, which will build 300 homes on the site.
A 40-year-old soccer and netball club with hundreds of members fears it could be left homeless or forced to move to sub-standard facilities.
Ms Kibble has also agreed to sell some land around Collingwood House for housing and business use.
However a community backlash means the amount to be sold will be far less than envisaged in last year's draft plan.
The comments have angered Bill Regan, a member of the Liverpool Action Group. He said the administrator didn't understand the importance of open space.
"Cricketer Michael Clarke and rugby league players Anthony Minichiello and Brad Fittler all played on parks in this area," he said.
"Ms Kibble lives in Potts Point, she's happy being near the Harbour."
Ms Kibble said the page was "an accurate enough" version of comments she made at an in-house meeting.
However, she said she had listened to the community and changed the original plan for Collingwood House.
Ms Kibble said her comments about "too much green" were in reference to the Collingwood House precinct.
"Some days the space around Collingwood is never used, there is just a lot of grass growing and you could shoot a cannon there," she said. | End |
