Latest gully gripe goes up the Creek

Glebe and Forest Lodge residents have once again publicly raised their concerns about Orphan School Creek.

A month ago, a group of community members gathered at Council’s Community Forum in Glebe, hoping to speak with Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore.

However, the Mayor was unable to attend due to illness, with Councillor Di Tornai attending instead in her place. Local resident Roberta Johnston asked her why Council didn’t get back to them about the landscape plan in November 2008, but said later her questions were “fobbed off”.

Cr Tornai said communication between Councillors and Council staff was frequent at this time and that she attended on-site meetings at the request of some residents to discuss the issue.

Regarding this latest attempt to stop construction, she felt the matter had already run for some time and the DA had been approved and modified at the request of residents.

“The project has been all but finalised, so I’m not sure what else I can say at this juncture. This doesn’t mean I don’t understand that some residents wish to continue the conversation,” she said.

But Ms Johnston claimed that Cr Tornai stated openly last year – in front of over 40 people – that she had been misled by Council about the plans for the site.

Cr Tornai explained that she has told both residents and Council that she had misled herself at the early stages of her enquiries.

“I didn’t realise which sections of the site pertained to the Frasers DA and which were Council’s responsibility,” she said. “After I became clear on the demarcation across the site, I was able to discern which elements we could amend and which were embodied in the DA approval.”

According to Ms Johnston, most residents were disappointed with the outcome for the area and thought it was an opportunity for Council to revegetate a unique and important wildlife habitat area.

“Council has instead built a large playground with edge plantings of some bush species,” she said. “The newly-built areas are fragmented by paths and play areas, making the site less effective as habitat. It’s dangerous for fauna to move about safely now.”

She also believed the incomplete Wood Street playground is already being used and the fencing design allowed children to play around trees and native plantings, which may be broken or trampled.

Ms Johnston said while Council had ignored the results of its own consultation process, the community still wanted them to play an important role in protecting the gully.

She said her next step would be to “keep pressing away” and hope that Council would allow some improvements to the design.

“Myself and others will not ‘die in a ditch’, as Clover stated publicly at the first Council meeting which we attended at Town Hall House,” she said.

“The sad thing is that this project has been undermined by people who have no expertise at all, or even a glimmer of understanding about biodiversity and ecosystems…They have created an overbuilt, very expensive site, which will never function properly as a habitat area.”

by Michelle Porter