Gardens in the LAP of Council
COMMENT
When Council received a small avalanche of submissions, a petition and emails asking that they leave Fitzroy Gardens pretty much as they are, Lord Mayor Clover Moore, backed by staff, sidelined them, arguing the community had “overwhelmingly” requested the makeover in consultation for the strategic 2007 Local Area Plan (LAP).
But did they, or was the LAP report nudged and fudged to suit Council’s existing agenda? By 2007, the project had already been on Council’s wish-list for years.
Council has not responded to requests by City News and by councillors for a record of the actual comments residents workshopped at public meetings. These meetings seemed very consultative, with residents grouped onto several large tables, each with a Council facilitator, where they came up with ideas for Kings Cross and wrote them on large sheets of ‘butcher’s paper’. The sheets were then pinned up and briefly explained by a representative from each table.
Clover Moore walked among the tables, arguing at ours that Kings Cross should become a mother-and-child-friendly retail precinct on the grounds that Darlinghurst Public School had expanded to two kinder classes.
However, as the LAP report points out, the area has an unusual demographic skewed towards young singles and couples, and older people and males – the least family-oriented statistical area in the City.
Several residents present said they did not remember Fitzroy Gardens being a high priority at a meeting dominated by discussion about late-night entertainment in Kings Cross.
Contrary to Council’s agenda, there was general consensus Kings Cross was and should be a late-night precinct but ways should be found to discipline any venues which flouted consent conditions. Discussion with Kings Cross and Redfern Police Commanders at the meeting centred around their powers to temporarily shut down venues on a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ basis. However this was omitted from Council’s report on the LAP.
Council’s report said residents wanted Fitzroy Gardens “refreshed” and “revitalised”. These words have become central to the debate, with Council interpreting them as ‘demolish and redesign’ while most residents see it, in the words of Councillor Burgmann, as “cheering up” the paving.
Clover Moore leans heavily on this report in her defence of Council’s plans. She says around 15,000 flyers were letterboxed advertising the meetings and that 75 per cent of submissions were in favour of the report.
Yet residents who last weekend collected 466 signatures opposing the project said people were 70-80 per cent on their side, and that a similar number were still unaware of Council’s intentions.
And submissions on the LAP report were in favour of refreshing and revitalising, not bulldozing, a crucial point that Ms Moore overlooks.
The Burra Charter, which prescribes heritage principles, says “do as much as is necessary, as little as possible”.
Wise words that Clover Moore would do well to heed.
by Michael Gormly
