Inner West Council freezes action on consultation and progress of LEP

By ERIN MODARO

All movement and consultation on the Inner West Council’s Local Environment Plans (LEP) have been halted by the Council at a meeting on Tuesday night. Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne called in a last minute Mayoral motion to defer any action on significant developments in Marrickville, Dulwich Hill and Ashfield, until the council has consulted with the Office of Local Government (OLG) about conflicts of interest for Councillors.

The Mayoral Minute, which was tabled to council during the meeting, was passed, with Cr Byrne stating that “no further engagement or work on the [Urban design and Heritage] studies” would take place until a response is received from the OLG.

The decision coincides with an outburst of community feedback that consultation on the LEP from the Inner West Council has been lack-lustre.

In August, Urban Design and Heritage studies for large blocks of development around train stations in Marrickville, Dulwich Hill and Ashfield were released by the Council. Community groups and residents voiced concerns over not being properly informed about the proposals, as well as the short consultation period supplied by the Council for the community to consider large amounts of complex documents.

Residents speak up at Council meeting

Several community members spoke at the Council meeting about their experiences with poor communication from the council concerning re-zoning and development under the LEP proposals. Three residents from affected suburbs addressed the Council about a lack of transparency during the brief consultation period.

A Dulwich Hill resident, whose home will be compulsorily acquired if the proposal goes ahead, described the community consultation as a “cynical exercise”.

“Overly stage managed. Lacking in transparency. And inadequate in not presenting any conceivable alternatives” the resident said to the council.

“Council’s job is to listen to our views.”

Another resident who currently lives in Ashfield, told council that residents “deserve a lot better in regard to this consultation”.

“These residents feel very unsafe. They lack trust in the council,” she said.

“There has been a lack of empathy, nor fair and reasonable consultation.”

The Ashfield resident said many others felt the consultation period was too short, and provided too late into the planning period of the development.

“Participants should not be so late into the life of an issue, that it is tokenistic or merely confirms decisions already made.”

Another resident from Dulwich Hill told council that navigating the council website to find information regarding the proposals was difficult.

“It is very challenging to navigate, and to find the information” she said.

She also mentioned that maps provided in the studies were hard to interpret, and changed orientation frequently.

Council moves to address community concerns

The community’s voices concerning consultation were noted by members of the council prior to the September 13 meeting. Former Deputy Mayor Jess D’Arienzo and Councillor Justine Langford tabled motions for the feedback period on the studies be extended by a month, among other measures to address community concerns.

Cr D’Arienzo confirmed to CityHub last week that her motion for extension would go through.

Both motions, however, were automatically deferred when Cr Byrne passed his motion to suspend action on the LEP, and were hence dismissed from the September 13 meeting.

Cr Langford said that she was “very disappointed” that her motion was not discussed at the meeting.

“Residents are very upset and shocked by the plans and very disappointed and angry with Council about the consultation. Large numbers of residents turned up to speak about the issue at the meeting, only to find that it was not discussed” she said.

Cr Langford said deferring the issue until the next council meeting, which will take place on October 25, is putting residents in “limbo”.

In regard to the Mayoral Minute halting action on the LEP, Cr Langford said Council has already “sought advice” from the OLG about conflicts on interest.

“The Model Code of Conduct for NSW Local Councillors provides clear guidance on how Councillors should manage pecuniary and non-pecuniary conflicts of interest” Cr Langford said.

The Inner West Council announced today via a Facebook post that a drop-in information session planned for Saturday has been cancelled.

While Council has suspended all action on the LEP, community groups are going ahead with consultation and gathering information on the proposal. The Save Marrickville group announced over Facebook that a planned community meeting on September 22 will still go ahead, despite council’s freeze.

“After much consideration, we have decided to go ahead with our Community Meeting on Thursday,” the post says.

Save Marrickville explained this decision was made “to give residents and businesses as much time and information they need to understand the potential impacts of the current and possible future development plans for Marrickville and surrounding suburbs”.

The Save Marrickville meeting will take place at Marrickville Bowling Club on Thursday September 22.