forestlodgetrees campaign at City of Sydney Council meeting 10/4/06

Despite a stormy night in the City of Sydney Council meeting last night, the issue of the Crown land at 77 Hereford Street did get some attention.

Our petition of over 300 signatures was tabled and we received the Lord Mayor's written reply to the questions on notice asked by Councillor Firth (see blog post for 4/4/06).

Answer by the Lord Mayor, Clover Moore (following a background note related to the history of permissive occupancy of the land):

"In response to the concerns raised by residents, I have asked the City staff to evaluate the site in terms of its value as open space to the broader community. I will ask the Minister for Lands to defer sale of the site until that assessment is complete and I will provide a copy of the staff report to all Councillors when it is available".

While this response is cause for some optimism, we need to keep in mind the Department of Land's stated time frame for selling the land - until we hear otherwise. We also need to maintain our campaign to convince the Lord Mayor and her officers that Forest Lodge needs this open space, not further development of an already congested area.