Woollahra Sailing Club battles council over Lyne Park upgrades
A harbourside park earmarked for expansion faces opposition from a powerful Sydney sailing club arguing it will lose valuable rigging space.
Wentworth Courier
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A prestigious eastern suburbs sailing club is embroiled in a tussle over plans to expand a nearby park with play equipment for children with special needs.
Woollahra Council voted in December to proceed with plans for a long-awaited upgrade to a playground at Lyne Park, which will include equipment for neurodiverse children, people with disabilities and elderly people.
However, despite several months of community consultation, Woollahra Sailing Club has claimed concerns about losing boat rigging and storage space to the expanded park have fallen on deaf ears.
Plans for the Lyne Park playground renewal were first presented to the public in February 2021.
The concept outlined plans to add new play equipment for younger and older children, along with a sensory walkway and nature play facilities including blocks, boulders, slacklines, and monkey bars.
Next to the playground, a garden activity trail with rehabilitative exercise facilities was designed to cater for older visitors and residents as well as people suffering from dementia.
Following changes made based on community feedback, councillors voted 13 to two to proceed to the design development and construction phases.
But Woollahra Sailing Club has maintained the public park upgrades will “dramatically reduce” the rigging area available to load boats in and out of the harbour.
On the club’s website, the park plans have been dubbed the council’s “proposal to reduce rigging area”.
The sailing club states the council has not addressed concerns, leaving the club with less area within the park to undertake its sailing school and major international sailing events.
The privately owned sailing club uses Crown land non-exclusively for boat storage and rigging next to the club, for which it pays a minimal $2 monthly fee to the council.
The club website states, following public comment in October, a council report showed of the 217 submissions received, 48 supported the overall design and 169 opposed the proposal.
Woollahra Sailing Club general manager Ross Barratt stated, on the club website, “little note was made of submissions from Australian Sailing, schools or the Commodore of the CYC” at a recent meeting.
At the December meeting, the council agreed to explore options with the Woollahra Sailing Club for alternate sites for boat storage and rigging.
Liberal Party Councillor for the Vaucluse ward Mary-Lou Jarvis said while she was “very happy” to support the club relocating its storage areas, it was “disingenuous” to suggest the 48sq m of extra space taken by the upgraded park “means that somehow the club’s operations are going to be impeded”.
“The council has done more for this sailing club than any other sailing club in the municipality,” Ms Jarvis said.
“It’s unfair and inequitable that the clubs would have had an expectation that they should use more of the park.”
At the December meeting, Mayor Susan Wynne said the limited space for social infrastructure in the high density eastern suburbs was the issue.
“We’re talking about contestability of space,” she said.
“I think what we’re forgetting is that this is public open space, and Woollahra Sailing Club is a for-profit organisation.”
“They [the community] think this is the best thing they have ever seen when it comes to something that’s available not just for children, but for disabled people with disabilities, those with sensory issues.”
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