‘I want to know who knew’: Councillors demand answers over Macquarie Park apartment complex

City of Ryde councillors will hold an extraordinary meeting to question why they were not told sooner about defects found in a 900-unit complex when the council was alerted to the problem months ago.

The state’s building watchdog last week handed property developer Greenland Australia an urgent rectification order to fix “serious damage” to concrete in the basement of the Lachlan’s Line apartments at 23 Halifax Street in Macquarie Park.

The Macquarie Park apartments were issued with a rectification order.Credit: Brook Mitchell

The document, published on the NSW Fair Trading website, stated that a draft copy of the order was first issued to Greenland – as well as the local council, owners corporation, the certifier and the Office of the Registrar General – on October 27 last year.

Councillors Penny Pedersen and Bernard Purcell will urge the City of Ryde to prepare a report on the history of the building, and who at the council knew about the defects, at a meeting on Tuesday.

“My concern is [councillors] were not told, and I want to know who knew,” Pedersen said.

The NSW government continues to grapple with the fallout from the statewide crisis of confidence in the quality of residential building construction that began five years ago, as it pushes ahead with plans to build tens of thousands of new homes to ease the housing supply and affordability crisis.

Pedersen said the motion the pair will move at the meeting also pushed for the report to include information about how the building problems would affect two council-owned spaces at the apartment complex which had been designated for a community centre and a childcare centre.

“We’ve got a community crying out for spaces to use. My concern is around that, and the fact we weren’t told. You can’t sit back and say it’s not the council’s responsibility to let residents know.

“We’re on the council to represent our community and our constituents. It’s their money, it’s ratepayers’ money, so the community needs to know, and councillors need to know, these things.”

Pedersen said councillors and senior council staff spoke at planning workshops every fortnight and: “If the mayor knew, he should have passed that on to all councillors.”

“I think there needs to be more open and transparent communication about these kinds of issues,” Pedersen said.

Mayor Sarkis Yedelian did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Purcell said there should be a “mechanism in place by which councillors are informed of serious breaches of building codes”.

“Issues like this should be brought front and centre to all concerned immediately,” he said.

The Building Commission NSW rectification order, which was published last Wednesday, warned of “serious damage and spalling of the concrete slab at the joint locations in basements and the ground floor” of the three-tower complex. Spalling refers to the weakening of concrete over time.

The order said the damage was “a defect in a building product or building element that causes or is likely to cause the basement slab to fail, namely, to fracture and collapse, leading to the destruction of the building or any part, or the threat of collapse of the building or any part”.

The watchdog later said the building was not at risk of imminent collapse, and the risk was confined to the “long-term durability” of the basement levels, rather than any units within the complex.

The developer, Greenland Australia, has said it would comply with the orders which require full rectification within eight months.

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