Councillor Chris Harris

Sydney Water has decided to subdivide the Crown St reservoir in Surry Hills and flog off the portion facing Crown Street (estimated value $12m-$14m). They have ignored the pleas of the local community and propose to sell it to a developer.

At Committee on Monday 11th September I was the only councillor - along with Cr Lee - who was willing to support purchasing the site. Amazingly the Clover Moore team refused to support us.

Open space is already at a premium in inner Sydney so it is in the interests of the Surry Hills community for the City of Sydney to protect the site from greedy high rise developers.

How? By the City of Sydney purchasing and preserving the site. We have done this before - in 2004 we paid $10M to buy the Water Police site in Pyrmont and in 2005 we forked out almost $20M to buy yet another property in Town Hall Square.

The Council has the money - all it takes is the courage to act and some forward thinking.

If you want the Crown Street reservoir site to be kept for the benefit of the public, contact as many Councillors as you can as well as the Lord Mayor.

You can make a difference and preserve your neighbourhood.

Cr Clover Moore - cmoore@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Cr Phillip Black - pblack@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Cr Verity Firth - vfirth@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Cr Marcelle Hoff - mhoff@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Cr Robyn Kemmis - rkemmis@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Cr Shayne Mallard - smallard@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Cr John McInerney - jmcinerney@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Cr Tony Pooley - tpooley@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au