More than 100 jump on petition for skate park at Rushcutters Bay Park as the proposal comes to a head

HE may only be ten but that didn’t stop Jasper Oxley from getting more than 100 people to sign his petition calling for a youth recreation facility in Ruschutters Bay Park.

More than 100 people have signed 10-year-old Jasper Oxley’s petition for a youth recreation facility at Rushcutters Bay Park. Picture: John Appleyard

HE may only be ten-years-old but that didn’t stop Jasper Oxley from getting more than 100 people to sign his petition calling for a youth recreational facility in Ruschutters Bay Park.

Woollahra Council will decide on Monday night whether to push ahead with the controversial proposal, which includes a skate park, basketball court and table tennis.

Jasper’s petition was signed by 115 people in two weeks after he left it at a local cafe accompanied by a simple message: “Please sign my petition and get kids off their iPads”.

The Sydney Grammar student told the Wentworth Courier there was not enough places for children his age to play locally.

Many people have objected to the proposal including Luke Gamulin, Leonie Elder, Teresa Kiernan, Peter Bowers and Michelle Bowers.

“My favourite thing to do is to skate and roller blade but the nearest facility is Bondi and it’s a bit of a drive for our parents to take us there.

“I’m a bit young to catch the bus.

“I would skate more if there was one at Rushcutters Bay Park and so would my friends.”

Jasper wrote a letter to the council as part of a school project but started the petition in his own time because he was so passionate about the issue.

A petition opposing the facility has amassed 270 signatures since it was started eight months ago.

Jasper says a skate park would be a huge hit with local kids his age. Picture: John Appleyard

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who is the Member for Wentworth, has opposed the facility, saying the addition of hard surfaces would not be “sympathetic to how the park was currently used by its visitors”.

Potts Point Residents Association president Andrew Woodhouse last week sent an email to the Centennial Park Trust asking them to consider building the skate park in the parklands near the water reservoir facing Oxford St.

“It (would be) compatible with the Trust’s Share the Park campaign and is an appropriate facility without anti-social impacts,” he said.

Jasper said the whole point of the proposal was to get a youth facility in the Woollahra LGA.

“Most of the other councils have one but not Woollahra.”

Potts Point Resdidents Association president Andrew Woodhouse wants the facility built at Centennial Park instead.

Mr Woodhouse, who lives in the City of Sydney, has threatened to take legal action against the council if it does not lodge a development application for the facility.

In 2013, the Land and Environment Court ruled that Sydney Council had to lodge an application for a shade structure at the Fitzroy Gardens playground after Mr Woodhouse took legal action against them.

“That case is now a precedent for your circumstances,” Mr Woodhouse wrote in an email to Woollahra Councillors.

A spokeswoman for Woollahra Council said staff were “very confident” they were not required to lodge a DA.

The council would undertake a review of environmental factors if approval is granted, she said.