A local community group are petitioning against new lighting and sports turf in Christison Park, Vaucluse.
The Save Christison Park Action Group (SCPAG) are concerned for the possible introduction of floodlights, artificial turf and fencing that could be a part of the new amenities as proposed in a draft plan by Woollahra Council.
The group says the proposal could limit the park’s open spaces and reduce dog off-leash time, as well as obstruct views. The group also noted the negative environmental impacts from flood lights and the traffic increases from additional weekly sport activities.
Christison Park sits at the top of the Vaucluse headland with views onto Sydney Harbour. Photo: Tripadvisor.
“SCPAG wants Christison Park’s wonderful open, natural, coastal environment just 8 kms from the city centre, protected for posterity as is Centennial Park,” a SCPAG spokesperson said.
The action group said that under the draft plan the park will become ‘sports complex’, with multiple plans by council to allow up to 60 hours of planned sports per week within the park. The current 15 hours of allocated sporting events is an acceptable amount from SCPAG “as part of sharing,” however additional increases and infrastructure could see off-leash dog time be cut quite significantly whilst also impacting the park’s landscape and views.
The spokesperson said that council is “trying, seemingly as a way of getting around objections to such lights, to embed the changes, Sports Lights, into a new POM (Plan of Management).”
“Council’s proposals for Christison Park are huge developments and will directly affect the local community and many people, not only those of Woollahra Municipality,” she said.
Action group campaigning for years
The SCPAG has been active for the past 15 years, initially formed in successfully stopping the installation of floodlights to the park back in 2008.
The plan which was made in late 2019 by Woollahra Municipal Council, Draft Plans of Management for Crown Land Reserves, suggests multiple changes to various public parks and beaches within the council area. The changes to Christison park mention the addition of “sporting facilities and/or amenities including but not limited to lighting… surface levelling and resurfacing, (and) environmental management…”
A Woollahra Council spokesperson said that the “sports and recreation facilities are a key priority for Council in creating spaces for community activity and wellbeing.”
Furthermore, council says any upgrades to the infrastructure of the park “would first be subject to a feasibility study, which would address sustainability and environmental and recreational park use benefits and issues.”
Council is aware of concerns regarding the park’s limited space for resident’s dogs to run, however they are currently conducting a “public consultation on a LGA-Wide Review of Dog Controls”, after concerns have arisen regarding dog safety and management.
The spokesperson said Council will “welcome ideas and feedback” before the public exhibition of the draft plan closes on Monday April 3.
It won’t be until May that the board will review public submissions and considerations to the plan. The SCPAG have started an online petition against the installation of floodlights and increase in sporting facilities.
