Councillor Chris Harris

While Clover Moore copiously portrays herself as a champion of residents’ rights, the imminent sale of Crown Street Reservoir land to developers is stark evidence of the very opposite.

The City of Sydney may be almost powerless to stop Sydney Water selling off this public asset, but there is nothing stopping it from delaying the sale and negotiating to purchase the site and preserve it for public use.

Deputy Lord Mayor Chris Harris has consistently supported Surry Hills residents by pushing for this course of action but Clover Moore has blocked
it.

Instead, she has merely asked Sydney Water to give the land to Council for a nominal sum. Predictably, Sydney Water and the cash-strapped state government have refused, their eyes only on the money.

But here’s the twist: Before Ms Moore became Lord Mayor, the Member for Bligh was all for Council purchasing the land, urging this in letters to both the Minister for Energy and the then South Sydney Council.

In December 2002 Ms Moore wrote to South Sydney’s General Manager about Crown Street Reservoir, asking Council to “consider ways to acquire the site to increase open space in Surry Hills, possibly by purchasing it using accumulated Section 94 contributions provided by developers for increased open space.” (1)

Chris Harris is dismayed, labelling the about-face as “a backflip and a betrayal.”

“This episode is a perfect illustration of Clover Moore’s overwhelming reliance on spin rather than action,” he said.

“As Member for Bligh it was easy for Clover to call for this and call for that and then publish a newsletter blaming the state government or Council when nothing came of it.

“But now she is also Lord Mayor, with the means to act, it’s a different story.

“Nothing substantive has changed about the issue. Clover has been talking up the shortage of public space in the inner city, Council has the money and there is overwhelming opposition from residents to developing the site.

“Yet when I moved that Council defer approval of the DA and commence negotiations with Sydney Water to buy the reservoir, Clover led the charge to defeat my proposal” said Harris. (2)

“This betrayal also reveals the fundamental conflict in Clover Moore’s dual roles as Lord Mayor and Member for Bligh:

“If someone in your street has a problem with Council, they should be able to petition the local member for support.

“Now there is no point because the Lord Mayor and the state member are one and the same person.

“This strikes a blow at the very fundamentals of our democratic process. In this case though it is not only a theoretical problem. Once this land is lost to the cause of developer profit, it is gone forever and the inner city will have less open space and even more people and traffic.

“I urge Clover to reconsider and match her actions to her words. It’s not too late to save the Crown Street site,” Cr Harris concluded.

For more information contact Chris Harris on 0407 469 384

1. Link to letter from Member for Bligh to South Sydney Council : http://www.clovermoore.com/idx.htm?http://www.clovermoore.com/issues/development/major/reservoir/021224_council.htm

2. COUNCIL MINUTES Monday 18 September 2006

Crown Reservoir Action Group: CRAG@unwired.com.au