Councillor Chris Harris

Sydneysiders will soon have an easy way to advertise a garage sale, lost pet, room for rent or a community meeting since council unanimously supported a Greens proposal to introduce 24-hour public access noticeboards across the city.

This might seem a small thing to some but now the ‘City of Villages’ will have an equivalent to village wells, places where people can make contact with others in their immediate community. For free.

The villages around our CBD suffer from a fractured local newspaper setup. In many areas, you might have to advertise your computer for sale in two or three different weekly publications to reach your surrounding community. This is costly and time-consuming.

And e-Bay is all very well but it’s pretty hard to walk to, say, Townsville and inspect that second-hand pushbike.

Noticeboards can also activate public spaces especially when placed near other facilities such as a district map, a fruit stall or seating in an urban pocket park. This has other dividends such as greater public safety from the extra ‘eyes on the street’.

And the sticky-tape left on every street pole as council removes notices testifies to the demand.

The Greens motion at council was prompted by several residents’ associations who have been pushing for noticeboards for years, with until now very little response from the City.

ResNet, the CBD group, were told that cylindrical European style boards would be in place by last January. They are wondering where they are. Some of their members form the ‘Urban strippers’ group who have taken matters into their own hands by systematically removing pole posters. While they target ads for illegal accommodation rackets in apartment blocks, they began lobbying for noticeboards when they realised that many people such as students had a dire need for an effective medium of local communication.

The motion requires a staff report on progress to date by the next round of council committee meetings on 21 May, at which interested residents can speak.

Here is the motion that was passed:

Community Noticeboards (moved Chris Harris)

1. That staff report before the next round of committee meetings on:

1. the results of the noticeboard survey and review, including who was surveyed;
2. the thinking behind the choice of cylindrical noticeboards, including an assessment of how practical they will be in the rain;
3. how different designs can be used in different areas in the interest of contributing to diverse village identities;
4. protocols for managing community noticeboards including a timetable for clearing them on a regular basis;
5. workable locations that have been identified in different villages.

2. That Council resolves to accelerate the process so that 24-hour public-access noticeboards are installed as soon as possible in as many locations as can be practicably found across the LGA.

3. That Council immediately instigates email consultation with local communities, residents associations and business groups to identify the most suitable locations for community noticeboards that will reach the majority of pedestrians.