Happy new year and we wish you a healthy and safe 2022!
 
We’re looking forward to the challenges of this new year and in particular we’re busy reviewing the three Draft Plans of Management (PoMs) for Crown Reserves, as listed below, which you may understandably have missed as they were released on 4 November the day before Council’s caretaker period commenced!  They can be viewed on Council’s website:

• Henley Precinct Open Space (including Gladesville Reserve)
• Figtree Park and Gladesville Community Centre Reserves
• Small Crown Reserves

On your behalf, we have been examining these proposals. With regard to the Figtree Park and Gladesville Community Centre Reserves PoM, although there is proven overwhelming support for retaining the croquet club in situ, we are concerned about disturbing inclusions in Council’s draft which if not corrected, will adversely affect the future of Hunters Hill village.
 
We are therefore requesting that Council’s General Manager withdraw the Figtree Park PoM from community consultation for further revision.
 
As we already pointed out to Council in July 2021, the first release of the Figtree Park PoM was misleading as it conflated the management of the Reserves with the re-development of the properties along Gladesville Road. The Acting General Manager’s reply at the time stated:
 
“I can assure you there is no intention to imbed the Draft Community Infrastructure Plan/Property Strategy into the Plans of Management for Figtree Park and Gladesville Community Reserve as detailed above, no such changes can occur without the exhibition of revised documents. All comments recorded during the consultation period will be included in the summary of feedback but as detailed earlier, only those items which are permissible under the Figtree Reserve Plan of Management will [be] considered.”
 
In spite of the above assurance, we now find that the current Plan released in October 2021 is once again strongly influenced by Council’s Draft Property Strategy!
 
Due to community opposition, Council resolved at its meeting on 26 April 2021 that “options and associated financial modelling be investigated” prior to adoption of the Draft Strategy. It is not acceptable that this unaltered and unadopted Draft now informs the intent of a potentially binding PoM. References to the Strategy appear throughout the document including:
 

7.9 Action Plan – Table 14 Objectives and performance targets – 3.2 Infrastructure and Facilities (p74)
“Plan for well-designed buildings and facilities to maximise usage through co-location, shared, flexible and multipurpose design that can accommodate changing needs overtime”.
This is a blanket statement that blatantly conflates the intent of the unadopted Property Strategy with the Figtree Park PoM.

8.2 Potential Future Development (p76)
This whole section which details the proposals in the Draft Property Strategy including the creation of residential, commercial and retail development must be deleted. Council has discussed, but has NOT “provided guidance for potential future development with corresponding intensity of use, at Figtree Park and Gladesville Community Centre reserves as an outcome in the draft Property Strategy”.
The Figtree Park PoM should not be utilised as an enabler for future developer driven goals.

 
Submissions close on 14 January 2022 and we’d ask you to please send a short email stating the concerns as above, to the Acting General Manager at tobinn@huntershill.nsw.gov.au requesting an acknowledgement. Thank you for all that you do. The Trust’s submissions are here:

HHT submission re Figtree Park Plan of Management

HHT submission re Henley precinct Open Space Plan of Management

HHT Submission re Miscellaneous Crown Reserves Plan of Management