The petition was delivered to Bayside Council by Councillor Tsounis. We are yet to hear a response.
Unfortunately, the Land and Environment Court has allowed construction to recommence following our attempt to stop work until the community has had its voice heard.
Not the result we wanted but we have been overwhelmed with feedback from residents and members to keep fighting to ensure this beautiful park can continue to be used by all.
We will share more on this in the coming days. Thank you all for your ongoing support.
We got the stop work order ! A further date has been set for Monday 7 December at the Land & Environment Court in Sydney. We issued a Notion of Motion to Bayside Council and Polytan, the construction company for failing to address the environmental impact of this field in our heritage park. There is no parking and with an estimate 300% increase in use, this is unacceptable for residents, along with the heat generating issues with synthetic fields.
Find our facebook page: Friends of Gardiner Park, for more information
Fences are Going up Tomorrow ! Councillors have the power to stop and reconsider this mess. Councillors are responsible for flawed plans and the future costs of synthetic fields to the whole of Bayside.
Fields will cost ratepayers for years to come as the replacements costs have not been factored. Gardiner Park, with no parking, is the least able to generate an income, and will affecting residents. This is inequitable and costly to all. Call and ask them to agree to the motion to change the plans. They have this motion and must act. thank you !
Come along to our family friendly protest at Rockdale Town Hall tonight. There is a council meeting starting at 7pm. Start gathering at 6:30 as Councillors start arriving. We have banners and a speaker system. More info in the email link
https://mailchi.mp/9d948d2e8257/gardiner-park-protest-at-town-hall-tonight
Getting front page of the SMH is an achievement but not for Bayside Council. Worst performing? Let Councillors know they can save money by NOT installing synthetic turf at Gardiner. Fix the drainage and irrigation then everyone gets a better park.
The formal petition is underway. We've been door knocking all weekend and collected over 100 signature from houses directly affected by the park's over-priced, over-developed synthetic plans.
The petition is on our website. Click the link to download or email us for a copy. Please sign, tell your neighbours, tell your street and deliver back to us (email for drop off)
https://savegardinerpark.wordpress.com/2020/10/25/petition-to-council/
Thanks again, we are getting lots of messages of support from the residents directly affected. Bayside Council needs to listen and act. Continue calling councillors. There is an even bigger team of resident working for the community so we can ALL enjoy this park.
Have you got one? Bayside Council have put out a brochure on the Gardiner Park Upgrade. It is short on detail so we decided to put together our own version of the brochure based on the evidence within Council's own documents. Here is Gardiner Park newsletter No.1
https://savegardinerpark.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/gp-newsletter-oct-2020-1.pdf
Park Meeting tonight, Thursday Oct 5th at 6:30pm, for those residents concerned at the information in the Mayor's brochure and more. Meet at the amenities block at 6:30pm. Join our fb page. Friends of Gardiner Park
Welcome all the Banksia Tigers supporters to our petition page. Please enjoy our updates to this campaign and thanks for your signatures.
We object to fake grass for scientific and health reasons. The heat effects of artificial turf are becoming more documented. Here is one link to 70 articles describing problems from burning feet to melting shoes. http://www.synturf.org/heateffect.html
NSW Football, who advise Councils on synthetic fields, advise not to play on synthetic fields at and above 30 degree due to heat retention.
Keep call and writing to council. They will listen to the potential damages that heat can cause to little feet.
Increased use of the park will mean constant parking on nearby streets. Arncliffe Park is being used every night until 9pm. Gardiner Park is not a sports hub, it's not a high use park, it's a local park. With plans to expand the parks on the other side of Banksia (Barton and Riverine) we are pushing back on this small park for residents to enjoy in a variety of ways without impacting the locals. Upgrade yes, Synthetic. No. Call or email council with your concerns. We are making a impact.
Information session for residents by residents at Gardiner Park today(Saturday 29th) from 2- 4pm. Come and see the plans and other documents we have acquired from Council via a GIPPA (freedom of information act). Come down and say Hi.
https://savegardinerpark.wordpress.com/
We are hearing rumblings in Council, they are noticing that there is real anger about this overpriced development of the park. SGPA has been doing lots of work uncovering documents and examining the business case for this extravagant amount of money for one synthetic field.
The cost will be close to $3million for all the works. The average cost of a synthetic field is $1.4million. Ador Oval in Rockdale cost $4.25million and they got 6 fields out of that money.
With no parking and a home team that has exclusive license to use the field, the park will not generate any money. Added to this the cost of maintenance (45-65K per annum) and replacement costs of $500k in 8 years time, this is turning into an expensive single use field.
Email or call council and tell them the ROI makes no sense. Fix the park, yes! don't waste money on synthetic.
Read more at - https://savegardinerpark.wordpress.com/
Over the last three weeks there has been multiple emails to Bayside Council and the Dept of Planning and Public Spaces. The main concern has been where is the DA? Where are the plans? where is the Environmental Impact Statement? None of these documents are either on the Bayside Council site or can be obtained from Council. The team behind this petition have received some lengthy responses only just this week saying they have done the right thing by all the laws and acts that this plan covers.
So let's just say you are reasonably in touch with the plans for your area, you follow Bayside Council and read The Leader. Finding out about the 'acceptance of a tender' and shovels are ready in weeks for has been a discovery of deception. None of the plans for the park have been available, made public or logical. We have discovered that some plans for your area will be totally out of your control and seemingly beneficial to people very close to Council.
Turf Wars. Gardiner Park can't get any bigger.
There are no extra car spaces. We are campaingning not just to keep this park and the upgrade to drainage which it needs but to push for the upgrades to Barton Park where 4 x multi use synthetic fields are planned.
https://www.theleader.com.au/story/6867355/turf-war-at-gardiner-park/
