North Sydney Council considers selling public road to Redlands School in Cremorne

A cash-strapped Sydney council is considering selling an entire street to a top private school, despite community concerns the sale could result in a loss of publicly available parking spaces.

A cash-strapped council is considering selling an entire street to a north shore private school, despite community concerns the sale could result in a loss of publicly available parking spaces.

North Sydney Council is set to enter into negotiations with Redlands School to discuss its offer to buy Monford Place, located next to the college’s main campus in Cremorne.

The school has already gone on a spending spree, forking out as much as $1.99m to snap up apartments on the small cul-de-sac.

Now the owner of all homes on the street, the school wants to buy the public road from the council in order to expand its campus for the growing student population.

If a sale proceeds, the school would close off the street to enable the construction of new facilities, such as a sports, wellness and performing arts centre.

Monford Place in Cremorne.

At a North Sydney Council meeting this week, councillors voted to commence negotiations on the potential sale.

The proposed sale could boost the financial position of the council which is battling ongoing cost blowouts associated with the North Sydney Olympic Pool redevelopment.

The school has bought all homes on the street.

The pool has cost the council $91.47m to date – 43 per cent higher than the original $64m estimated budget.

Councillor Shannon Welch said while she was “against selling public assets”, she recognised that the council was facing financial pressures, “largely due to the North Sydney Olympic pool project”.

“I support the chief executive entering into negotiations with the school but reserve the right to oppose the final outcome if it’s not in the best interest of our community,” she said.

Lesley Sommerville, a member of a Cremorne precinct community group, spoke at the council meeting to raise concerns over the potential closure of the street to the public, saying it could exacerbate traffic and parking in the area.

The school’s masterplan, outlining the closure of Monford Place.

The street currently has 18 carparking spaces, which Ms Sommerville described as easing parking demand in the area, particularly during school hours.

“Eighteen less carparking spaces, mainly used by Redland staff, students and visitors, means those 18 cars will be parking on surrounding streets,” she said.

“I suspect it will put increased pressure on and more demand for on-street parking and generate extra traffic.”

Redlands School has written to the council, stating the sale of the road would support future growth of the college, which currently has about 1800 students.

The school says the street has little public broader benefit beyond Redlands, which is the “primary user of the road”.

The school says the road closure would enable a masterplan to expand the college.

“With increasing population densities in the North Sydney area, the demand for places for students to attend our school has never been higher,” the school wrote.

“To provide facilities to meet this demand, over the past decade the school has acquired additional property adjacent to our senior school campus.”

A council report stated entering into negotiations with Redlands would enable the council “to investigate greater benefits that may be able to be realised for the community through the sale of this asset”.

The council said an agreement with the school would have to ensure publicly available spaces were incorporated into any redevelopment of the site “to ensure no net loss of carparking” spaces.

A council report is due to be presented at a future council meeting on the outcomes of the negotiations before a final decision on the sale is made.

In a statement, Redlands School said “all schools consider planning over a span of decades, and since 2021 Redlands has held discussions with council about this potential future purchase”.

“No decisions have been made by either party and we welcome council’s agreement to discuss this further,” a school spokeswoman said.

““Redlands has a strong track record of engaging with our neighbours and the local community, and that would be continued should there be changes to our school plans in the future.”

The council rejected a previous request to sell the street to the school in 2021, making that decision prior to the cost escalations on the North Sydney Olympic Pool.

Redlands is not the first Sydney private school to spend millions buying land around their colleges, with Cranbrook splashing out more than $15m to buy a neighbouring property at Bellevue Hill.

Wenona School paid almost $5m for the Independent Theatre in Miller St, North Sydney, while Stella Maris College paid more than $5m for the old Manly Fishos venue on Pittwater Rd at Manly.