GREENWICH COMMUNITY
ASSOCIATION INC
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD
ON
AT
1
Opening
The meeting commenced at
Apologies
MaryEd Hartnell, Joan McGilvray, Anne Steiner, Stephen Bowers (on holiday) and
John May (arriving later).
2
Confirmation of Minutes
The last meeting was the AGM held on
3
Matters arising from Minutes
At the last Council meeting a report by Peter Brown (LCC) on Greenwich Baths was presented. Tenders will be called with the opening period extended to end-April. It is hoped that the historic baths will continue to run as before. A rise in insurance costs was the problem for the last commercial operator.
4
Correspondence
The
following correspondence had been sent/received:
|
Date |
To whom |
Regarding |
|
|
Lane
Cove Council |
|
|
|
Lane
Cove Council |
DA for |
|
|
National
Trust |
DA for |
Inwards
|
Date |
From Whom
|
Regarding
|
|
2/2/2003 |
Bill
D’Apice |
a)
b)
offer to continue pro bono services to GCA |
Rob Starling (President) pointed out that tax-free status had still not been granted to the GCA, despite Mr D’Apice’s efforts.
Further discussion was held regarding the retirement
village under construction at
Gus Hertsik (Treasurer) reported
the bank balances were:
|
Cash
Management |
$6,419.64 |
|
Current
Account (CBA) |
$632.10 |
Membership currently stands at 59 but this did not
include new subscriptions received this evening.
The Association’s Public Liability insurance was due
for renewal. Last year the cost was $605
but the new quote from GIO was $975.12.
The Treasurer had obtained another quote from CGU for $632.50.
Motion that the insurer be changed
from GIO to CGU to take advantage of the lower cost.
Moved Gus Hertsik; seconded
John Gebler; passed unanimously.
6
Guest Speaker, Dr Tony Recsei
The President introduced Dr Recsei
as the driving force in the organisation Save Our
Suburbs. The organisation
has had recent successes, especially in Hunters Hill. State planning policies in our area and their
impact, for example, in
Dr Recsei pointed out that
the main driving force on over development is not local council but the State
government. With one thousand people
coming to
Through State Planning Policy #53, local councils
must increase density and provide a local planning strategy to do so. If not, the State government (PlanningNSW) takes control.
For the local strategy, PlanningNSW does not
specify a density - it simply accepts or rejects council’s strategy.
The strategy goes to a committee, members of which
can be developers. SOS sees this as a
conflict of interest. Further potential
conflicts arise when developers donate to political parties.
Apart from SEPP #53, SEPP #5 can influence our local
area. SEPP #5 allows units to be built
in residential areas. Developers’ “theft
of amenity” allows them to profit.
The effects of over development are:
·
traffic congestion - car use increases more than bus and train use;
·
reduction in air quality
·
overloading of infrastructure eg.
overflow of sewerage into creeks;
·
more noise;
·
more greenhouse gases - apartment dwellers are more inclined to use air
conditioners, clothes dryers, hallway lighting;
· roads wear out.
SOS maintains that there are alternative policies to
this type of urban development. They favour the “ultra” city model where satellite cities are
established with high speed transport links between them and within each
locality its CBD is easily reached by public transport.
The President thanked Dr Recsei
and questions were taken from the floor.
7
Austin St Update
Of all those
present at the meeting, only one household reported that they had received the
relevant brochures in Council’s recent letterbox drop. Similarly, Tom Lawson reported that at a
recent Friends of Lane Cove meeting, only half of those present had received
the leaflets.
Tom explained that there are currently two schemes
for the upgrade of the car park and library in
On 5th May, LCC will determine if Woolworths’ offer has merit to proceed to the next
stage. Then Council would survey
residents to determine which scheme they prefer.
Councillor Rod Tudge
reported on the following:
a)
b) Council Elections - will now
not be held until March 2004.
c) Resolutions concerning
d)
e) New LEP - should help with
establishing controls on new DAs.
f)
g) M2 Committee - an
independent report commissioned by LCC has vindicated the Lane Cove Tunnel
Action Group’s statistics on pollution.
2
Sub Committees
a) Planning and Development
Committee met last week with Michael Ryland taking
over the chair from Peter Monk.
Motion that this Association reaffirms its previous
delegation to Mr John Gebler
to review Development Applications in respect of compliance with Council’s
Building Codes and Local Environment Plan and other relevant standards or
statutory instruments; and to submit objections to Council on any
non-compliance or misleading or incorrect statements on behalf of the
Association; and to speak on behalf of the Association in any Land and
Environment Court proceedings as a consequence of such objections.
Moved Jill Pain; seconded Gus Hertsik; passed unanimously.
b) The GCA web site is currently being updated with the Greenwich Sports Club being included.
c) Community Day
This is being coordinated by Ann Smith and Maree Southwood. The School’s P&C and FOGS have been notified. Mayor John May noted that LCC was obliged to produce a Social Plan for which there is a committee has already been established. So, LCC would be interested in having a booth to canvas opinions from the community regarding its needs.
There being no further business the meeting was
closed at
………………………………………….
President