The Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Post hosted the Meet the Candidates event last night at West Pymble Bicentennial Club.
The event was broadcast live by Triple H FM 100.1 local radio and live-streamed on the HK Post’s Facebook page.
Councillors in attendance were Deputy Mayor Sam Ngai (Roseville Ward), Cr Jeff Pettett (Comenarra Ward) and Cr Christine Kay (St Ives Ward). The new candidates were Alec Taylor (Roseville Ward), Greg Cook (Gordon Ward), Simon Lennon (Gordon Ward), Greg Taylor (Comenarra Ward), Amanda Brien (St Ives Ward) and Adrienne McLean (Wahroonga Ward).
Councillors Jennifer Anderson, Martin Smith and Peter Kelley provided written apologies for their absences. Mayor Cedric Spencer was also absent. Cr Jennifer Anderson had previously committed to attend the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Womens Shelter Annual General Meeting which commenced at the same time as the Meet the Candidates event.
The audience expressed their concerns about tie voting within the Ku-ring-gai Council, questioning the candidates and councillors for ideas on resolving and preventing future deadlocks. The panel discussed the possibility of reducing the Ku-ring-gai council to an odd number (three wards of three councillors) or adopting a similar model to Hornsby and Willoughby Council with a popularly elected mayor.
Deputy Mayor Sam Ngai acknowledged the viability of these two solutions but explained that such changes wouldn’t come into effect until 2028 at the earliest. According to Cr Ngai, a decision must be made in the first half of the council term should the elected council pursue this change. The proposal needs approval from the Office of Local Government, which in turn would be brought to a referendum in 2024. If the referendum was supported, the structural changes would come into place in 2028.
Environmental issues were among the chief concerns raised by the public.
Representatives from the Natural Turf Alliance expressed their frustrations with the $3.5 million Norman Griffiths oval upgrade in West Pymble, which converted the field from natural to synthetic turf. The community group discussed the negative environmental repercussions of artificial turf and alleged that new natural turf construction is more economical, at 1/7th the cost.
“The issue is, a lot of these sporting groups have state-government grants that are connected to artificial turf, which automatically creates a barrier there…But there is definitely room for this issue to be investigated further,” agreed Councillor Christine Kay.
With a professional background in conservation management, candidate Greg Taylor was familiar with the environmental concerns raised by the Natural Turf Alliance.
“It’s extremely concerning how much ratepayer money has already gone into this project without an [Environmental Impact Assessment] document being produced,” Greg Taylor said. He identified two critically endangered plant communities which will be directly affected by the heat produced by the synthetic turf field.
One attendee raised the issue of unauthorised tree removal, describing how six trees in his street were deliberately poisoned, and two cut down without authority. The panel discussed the difficulties in policing this issue but unanimously agreed that the current fines are insufficient in deterring this.
On the issue of the funding Marian Street Theatre redevelopment, the panel was less in agreement. Candidates Simon Lennon, Adrienne McLean and Councillor Christine Kay expressed their support for multi-million dollar redevelopment, while other candidates presented economically conservative views.
“It will cost a lot of money to redevelop, and the council simply doesn’t have that funding,” said Candidate Alec Taylor. “I’m not a fan of funding the redevelopment with debt. I think there’s no income stream against that debt, it will just create a drag on a council with no exit strategy. I think we need to find a way of funding it and then we need to set it up for success.”
Concerns were also raised about the council’s decision to block the redevelopment of Roseville Club, despite the proposal being approved by the North Sydney Planning Authority. Candidate Adrienne McLean raised her support in preserving and maintaining these community facilities, especially to accommodate a higher density urban population.
A representative from Bike North also called for the council to improve cycling infrastructure across Ku-ring-gai, with wider pathways and safe and separated pathways where possible. The representative alleged that Ku-ring-gai Council had had a bicycle plan in place for nine years, yet had only implemented 3% of the proposal. The panel were receptive to improving cycling infrastructure to increase safety and encourage more people to cycle for travel and recreation.
