Northern Beaches Council: $1m sustainability centre for North Head knocked back
A $1m proposal by Northern Beaches Council to turn a neglected building at North Head into an interactive environmental and sustainability centre has suffered a setback.
Manly
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A $1m proposal by Northern Beaches Council to turn a dilapidated building at North Head into an environmental education centre for the public has suffered a knock-back by the Harbour Trust.
Mayor Michael Regan said the council wanted to invest around $1m in renovating the building to create an environmental and sustainability centre for schoolchildren and the public, open seven days a week.
However, in return for the hefty investment he said the council would want a long lease and was only able to pay “community rent, not commercial rent” for it.
Cr Regan said he feared that the council’s proposal — which had been invited by the trust — had not been seen as lucrative as other commercial ventures, despite the concept of an environmental centre aligning closely with the organisation’s values.
In a letter from the trust to the council it stated that the Harbour Trust does not receive operational funding from government and “the revenue from the adaptive reuse of our heritage buildings and sites underpins our environmental, heritage and community work”.
Cr Regan told the Manly Daily his concern was that the trust wanted “commercial returns over public benefit” and said the council could not compete in a tender with “the F45s and Virgin gyms of this world”.
He also questioned the benefit of leasing buildings to the TV production company behind Big Brother, currently filming at North Head.
Joseph Carrozzi, chief executive of the trust, strenuously denied the trust was more interested in commercial benefit as being the reason for “pushing the pause button” on the proposal, saying it was best all-round while a review of the trust by the federal government is underway.
“We are not interested in the privatisation of Sydney Harbour Trust sites,” he said. “It is not what we are about or what we want,” he said.
“I want to reassure the public on that.
“We are not looking to prioritise commercial tenants over community.”
He added that the Big Brother project was just a short-term venture and that the area was still available for the public to explore.
However, when asked whether he had backed a previous, now-defunct, proposal by the International College of Management Sydney to move into another building at North Head, Mr Carrozzi said the trust had been keen and they needed “more tenants like ICMS at North Head”.
He also added that the council’s proposal was worthy and the trust was keen to help the it apply through whatever process was best after the review concludes.
Cr Regan said the North Head site, which the trust took control of in 2006, had been neglected for 14 years, with Mr Carrozzi agreeing it was one of two sites along with Cockatoo Island that were still awaiting rehabilitation.
Manly MP James Griffin said currently the area was a terrible waste of some of the most iconic land to exist in Sydney if not Australia.
“North Head has been left last and that needs to change,” he said.
“I don’t blame the trust for that.”
Mr Griffin said he hoped the review would conclude that more funding should be made available to allow the trust to rehabilitate North Head.
And, he said the council’s proposal could be looked at once the review was completed.
Cr Regan said the council was looking to put together a business case for the proposal in readiness for an expression of interest if that’s what it came to.