Tag Archives
WestConnex privatisation likely
by ALEC SMART The NSW Govt is planning a scoping study to consider divesting its remaining 49 per cent stake in WestConnex toll roads and sell it to the private sector. NSW Treasury will seek to appoint advisers to conduct the scoping study with a report expected to be handed to the Government in the […]
The strange case of the Illegible logo
by ALEC SMART The new logo for the Inner West Council (IWC) has ruffled feathers across the inner-west region. Opponents criticise the text legibility and its significant costs, propounding that the public should have been more involved in the decision-making process, especially since ratepayers financed the project. And, surprisingly, it cost $90,000 of inner-west ratepayers’ […]
Sleepless nights as WestConnex breaks curfew
By ELIZA SPENCER Turn off the Princes’ highway, and from Campbell Street to Stanmore Road, the sound of compression breaking, rattling trucks and booming horns sound the march of progress towards the competition of the WestConnex New M5 project. The controversial project has already caused the forced eviction of residents across the Inner West, and […]
Metro tree felling fallout
By VANESSA LIM An announcement that 10 mature trees on Smidmore Street in Marrickville, next to the construction site for the expansion of the Metro Shopping Centre, will be chopped down, has caused anger. The Metro shopping mall expansion, which was approved by the NSW Planning and Assessment Commission (PAC) in 2012, first stated that […]
Inner West Council moves Australia Day celebrations
By ELIZA SPENCER In an historic decision, Sydney’s Inner West Council (IWC) has voted to move the annual Australia Day celebrations to January 25, the day before the existing national holiday, becoming the first NSW council to change the controversial date. On 12 November, after a heated debate within council chambers, the motion passed with […]
Glebe Island dust-up
by ALEC SMART The proposed construction of a facility for the delivery, storage and distribution of construction materials, including sand and concrete, on the east side of Glebe Island in Sydney Harbour, faces strong community opposition. On Monday 28 October, the Port Authority of NSW granted approval to its own plan for a ‘multi user […]
Tree felling falling-out
By ALEC SMART The Greens and several independent councillors on the Inner West Council (IWC) are fuming after a revised plan for tree protection was amended at the last minute and voted into policy. The aggrieved councillors claim they were ‘ambushed’ when it was revealed the amendments, which permit residents to fell trees within three […]
Berejiklian Govt stomps on transparency
BY WENDY BACON Public accountability and transparency are often described as core principles of modern parliamentary democracy. However, it is one thing to set up accountability mechanisms, it is quite another for those mechanisms to deliver actual accountability by which is meant a willingness on the part of public officials to account for or accept […]
Town Hall Drags on Digital Transparency
By John Moyle Live streaming of council meetings has been enthusiastically taken up across Australia, but in New South Wales the country’s largest and wealthiest council, the City of Sydney, is proving to be a reluctant adaptor to the digital age. Their stance is despite repeated efforts by the Council’s independent and Liberal councillors to […]
Asbestos policy needs support
BY JOAN HENSON Linden Thorley’s home was covered in deadly asbestos after an Australia Street warehouse fire on June 17 last year. It took over 10 months to completely clean his address of asbestos. His home had to be demolished as it could not remain standing with the necessary removal of 100 millimetres of soil. […]
