‘We must investigate': Council forges ahead with street sale to elite Sydney school

News.com.au

4 days ago

The cash-strapped North Sydney Council is moving forward with a proposal to sell part of a public road to a prestigious school, despite outrage from residents.
Sydney Church of England Grammar School – better known as Shore – has formally approached North Sydney Council to purchase a chunk of Edward St north of Lord St.
On Monday night, council discussed a recommendation that it 'enter into discussions regarding the potential closure and sale' of the street section, including undertaking community consultations.
The independent, all-boys school – which has annual tuition fees of up to $46,000 – would be required to provide a minimum $20,000 bond to cover the cost of council's 'investigations', with any amount not spent on inquiries refunded back to the school.
Discussion began with a speech from the school's community engagement director Sarah Taylor, who read a statement on behalf of headmaster John Collier.
Parents who were 'agitated' and 'opposed' to the proposal were 'actually arguing against their own interests,' the statement said.
The school's intention was to move traffic during drop-offs and pick-ups within its property as part of an internal ring-road if it completed the purchase.
Local residents would lose 'perhaps four parking spaces in Edward Street,' while the school would 'probably reduce demand for these spots by enhanced spaces within the school'.
North Sydney Mayor Zoe Baker then added an amendment to the motion, specifying that discussions would include a 'possible land swap for the provision of a pocket park on the corner of Mount and Edward Streets'.
The motion was carried unanimously after several councillors voiced their support, though they added caveats.
'I want to make it clear that I do not want to see this council forced into a position where we are selling community assets simply because our financial position is unsustainable,' said Councillor Shannon Welch.
Ms Baker stressed the dire state of council's finances as justification for the move.
She said she felt the same way about the proposal as she did about two other motions passed earlier that night, which were also a reflection of council's financial position.
One of those was a motion to consider ticketing North Shore families watching Near Year's Eve fireworks from public vantage points, while the other was a decision to reallocate funds for rebuilding the Blues Point seawall to instead replace the PA system at North Sydney Oval.
'All of these things are matters that we must investigate and explore if we are to be a careful council who are seeking financial sustainability and strength in exceptionally difficult and precarious financial circumstances,' Ms Baker said.
' … I think we must investigate, but I would rather that we were a council in a position where we weren't needing to investigate, but that is not the case.'
The section of road that Shore has offered to buy currently separates the school's senior and preparatory campuses, and is a known traffic bottleneck during pick-up and drop-off times.
Before Monday night's meeting, Shore's offer had already been met with backlash from residents, who said closing the street would 'exacerbate the existing traffic chaos'.
'It is an education district but it is a residential district too,' Danielle Walters, who has lived in the area for two decades, told The Daily Telegraph.
'How much are we doing to allow a school to dominate a whole area and what does it mean for us?
'If this is all going to be (a) school, should we just be selling our properties to Shore now?'
Another resident said she was already 'frequently prevented from accessing my property by the queues of massive SUV's and the private traffic wardens employed by SHORE'.