Manly Oval carpark plans delayed as council administrator awaits independent audit findings
NORTHERN Beaches Council has extended its closing date on submissions for the Manly Oval carpark while administrator Dick Persson awaits findings of an independent audit.
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NORTHERN Beaches Council has extended its closing date on submissions for the Manly Oval carpark while administrator Dick Persson awaits findings of an independent audit.
Meanwhile, critics of the plan to build a double-storey parking lot under Manly Oval have said it was pushed back because the council did not include its preferred traffic plan in the original notification to residents.
It comes after more than 300 people attended a public meeting in torrential rain and wind on Sunday to protest the oval.
Save Manly Oval Alliance president Jack Steggall called the omission “deceptive”.
“I don’t want to be nasty, but it seems to me they were a bit deceptive. It is a funny mistake to make on such an important issue,” Mr Steggall said.
“The preferred design of a roundabout has enormous implications for traffic movement in Sydney Rd. To leave it out of their public documents was amazing.”
The other alternative, which was put on exhibition, was for a right-hand turn into the oval from Sydney Rd near the junction of Eustace St.
A council spokesman said the plans were made to reduce congestion.
“A central aim of the Manly 2015 project is to reduce the amount of traffic in Manly’s CBD,” he said.
“Not only have council’s own traffic engineers exhaustively studied the traffic effects of the carpark, but the Manly Chamber of Commerce and independent experts have welcomed the initiative.”
At the meeting, hosted by the Save Manly Oval Alliance at St Mary’s Parish Hall last Sunday, residents called on the council’s administrator Dick Perssons to put the carpark development on hold.
They signed a petition that the project be decided by the newly elected councillors after the September 2017 election.
The development application will go before the Sydney East Joint Regional Planning panel later this year, and submissions to the council had originally being scheduled to close on June 17.
Former Manly councillor Candy Bingham said “expert after expert informed the meeting about major concerns in relation to the DA”, which was lodged the day before Manly Council was amalgamated into the one Northern Beaches Council.
Mr Steggall said the fact so many people turned up to the meeting despite the super storm was “huge”.
“It sends a message to the council that it should either put the development application on hold or withdraw it altogether,” he said.
The council spokesman said the delays were largely due to community concerns.
“Administrator Dick Persson has heard the concerns raised and commenced a review by an independent auditor of this project to ensure it is in the best interests of the community,” he said.
“Northern Beaches Council will be open and transparent at all times for this project.”
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