Councillor Chris Harris

A long battle has finally ended in a victory for the Greens and the Rushcutters Bay community with the contract for the management of the local tennis courts being awarded to Rory Miles, the much loved operator of the site who has done a fantastic job of managing the courts for the last 27 years.  

Earlier this year it didn’t look like this story would have such a happy ending.  Lord Mayor Clover Moore and her party of “independents” vigorously supported a recommendation by Council staff that all Council owned tennis facilities be placed in the hands of a single operator, tossing Mr Miles out of his job.  See this post, which I made on the issue at that time, for more information. 

The Greens Councillors opposed this recommendation on the grounds that the tender process leading up to it was flawed in a number of ways.  It didn’t properly account for the contributions existing operators had made to the community, which in the case of Mr Miles included extensive free tuition and court time provided to local disadvantaged kids.  It also ignored the fact that he had been provided with a $100 000 per annum grant from the charity Franks Family to further this work with disadvantaged and indigenous children.

Additionally it was inconsistent in its treatment of the various tenderers.  One was excluded for emailing Councillors about their application as this was considered ‘lobbying’, however a second tenderer was excused after undertaking a similar action and went on to become the recommended winning tenderer.  When I tabled legal advice stating that this inconsistency was unacceptable Clover Moore scrambled to suspend the tender process and ultimately deemed it necessary to be restarted.

The new tender process was carried out in a far more rigorous and equitable manner.  Once the contribution to the community of each of the operators was properly accounted for it became clear that Mr Miles was the operator best placed to carry on the management of the Rushcutters Bay courts.

The level of community support behind this operator was phenomenal and I’m very pleased to see we’ve finally had a positive outcome.  Rory Miles has gone through hell over this issue and been forced to spend around $55 000 negotiating his way through Clover Moore’s attempts to get rid of him.  I’m sure that he and the tennis players of Rushcutters Bay will be most relieved that he’s now able to go back to doing what he does best, teaching tennis and operating a much loved social tennis club.  

Things are looking up in the ongoing saga surrounding the tender to manage the City of Sydney’s tennis courts (for background information see my previous post on this matter).  At the last Council meeting a motion was passed to restart the tender process with criteria that would capture the true benefit to the community of each operator.

In addition to this, I had the pleasure on Friday the 18th of June of presenting a cheque for $2500 from the Rushcutters Bay tennis community to Plunkett Street School (see image).  The money was able to go to this very deserving school as a result of wonderful generosity Francis Douglas QC and the Rushcutters Bay tennis community.

When the initial tender recomendation was presented to Council I sought legal advice from Francis Douglas QC to confirm whether or not the recommended applicant had breached tendering guidelines.  Advice from QC’s is generally not cheap so some generous members of the Rushcutters Bay community pitched in $2500 to pay for the advice in the name of helping to achieve a fair outcome for their much loved local tennis centre operator.

The advice confirmed my suspicion that the tender guidelines had indeed been breached and this had the desired effect of prompting Council to investigate, and ultimately restart, the tender process.  When I asked Mr Douglas to name his fee he told me instead of paying him to donate the money raised to a cause that would assist disadvantaged children.  I asked the community to nominate a worthy recipient.  As the children of Plunkett Street School had been receiving free court time and coaching at Rushcutters Bay Tennis Centre for the last 15 years the community thought it fitting that the money should go to that school.

The Plunkett Street School and myself greatly appreciate the generosity of the Rushcutters Bay tennis community.  We will keenly look forward to re-evaluating the tenders to run the City’s tennis courts once criteria that recognise the input to the community of each operator have been finalised.

Last week I presented a 1000 signature petition from skaters to a Council meeting. The petition urges the City to build the skate park that it has already spent significant time and money planning for Prince Alfred Park.  After weeks of trying to present the petition to Lord Mayor Clover Moore, who talks big on skate parks but never took the time to respond to the groups calls or emails, they gave up in frustration and gave the petition to me to present.

The Prince Alfred Park skate park traces it’s origins to 2006 when the City commissioned a ‘Youth Facility and Skate Facility Needs Study’ to inform & advise councillors and staff on possible locations for skate parks in the City’s local government area. The number one recommendation was for Prince Alfred Park and Clover got right behind it. The skate park was included in the master plan for the long awaited makeover of the park’s swimming pool, basketball court, open space areas and the Coronation Centre. The skating community were thrilled until the skate park was deleted at the last minute by the Lord Mayor who had suddenly decided the location was ‘unsuitable’.

The skating needs study confirmed the need for improved skate facilities in the City of Sydney and identified the need to construct these facilities in highly visible, easily accessible areas that are co-located with other facilities that will be used by young people.  Areas like Prince Alfred Park, or perhaps another park like Victoria Park near Sydney Uni, would be ideal.

The findings make it clear that the City’s parks are the best places for skate facilites. That is why it is frustrating to see the planning for expanded facilities stopped in their tracks as soon as a few residents lobby the Lord Mayor to oppose them.

The objections are typically noise, graffiti and antisocial behaviour but it will be clear to any well informed person that skate parks are not places where any of these things run rampant - they are quite simply spaces where young people can spend hours honing their skills, socialising and getting some healthy exercise. The skating community in Bondi for example are so concerned about these ignorant perceptions that they have banded together to warn off others who want to tag their skate park with graffiti and are even planning to paint over tags when they appear. Further, the perception that skaters create anti social behaviour is not based in fact but is founded on fear & ignorance. In contrast research has shown that alcohol consumption definitely leads to anti social behaviour but alcohol is available in great quantities throughout the City and I don’t hear anyone suggesting we ban that.

The main demographic of the skating community are young people under the age of 24 and this group comprise around 25% of the City of Sydney population.  The City therefore has an obligation to identify the recreational needs of this group and provide for them, just as it provides for every other group. The skate study has identified the need and the City must now be proactive in creating the facilities.

The Lord Mayor has said publicly (and mistakenly) that skate parks should be in grungy laneways and in places where no one else wants to go. Hardly a welcoming message for the young people in our community. The suggested Millers Point site under the freeway was an example of this - the location wasn’t ideal but the Greens councillors fought for it because we saw the need for such a facility and it was better than nothing.  In the end Clover was scared away from the project by the a vocal minority complaining that the noise of skaters would hurt their property values, despite the fact that 120 000 cars per day also pass those properties.  My Greens colleague Irene Doutney then called for a skate park to be built at Barangaroo, a call which the Lord mayor eagerly supported - in typical fashion Ms Moore is calling for someone else to do something she is too frightened to do herself. While a skate park at Barangaroo would be great, it will take years to appear if it eventuates at all and it just wouldn’t tick all the boxes like Prince Alfred Park does.

Hopefully the 1000 signatures collected by dedicated members of the skating community will serve as a wake up call to Clover Moore and she will reverse her previous backflip and restore the cancelled plans for Prince Alfred Park or as I have suggested Victoria Park near Sydney University.  I will be keeping up the pressure and now it is clear that at least 1000 others will be too. 

At a Council meeting on the 15th of March, the Lord Mayor moved a mayoral minute (delivered to councillors 25 minutes before the meeting), which was supported Clover Moore Party “independents” and the Liberal Councillor, to abandon plans to build a skate park at the Millers Point site underneath a busy freeway (for background information on the site, see this previous post).

This is a massive blow for the skateboarding community of the City and young people generally, but it shouldn’t have to be this way.  The Lord Mayor’s reasons for abandoning the plans are based on a number of incorrect and poorly evidenced assumptions and it seems as though she is running scared from the hype campaign created by a small group of very vocal residents with a serious case of “Not In My Backyard”.

This spineless backdown by the Lord Mayor is the second time a perfectly good proposed site has been junked for her perceived political benefit. Prior to this a very advanced design for a skate park in Prince Alfred Park was deleted from the plan at the last minute following ill informed and prejudiced opposition by a handful of her supporters many of whom you will see handing out ‘how to votes’ for her at the next election.

The first reason given for cancelling the plan is that it will be “affected by” the cycleway planned to be built next to the proposed skate park site.  This is a flimsy excuse at best and the Lord Mayor has made no attempt to explain what exactly “affected by” means in this context.  The cycleway has been on the drawing board since before the planning for the skate park was initiated and there had been no suggestion that these two plans were in conflict before now.  The skate park was planned for a small plaza area next to the cycleway and would interfere with it no more than an adjacent café or children’s playground would.

The importance of the site as a pedestrian access way between Wynyard and Barangaroo is also listed as a reason to reject the plans, however with solid plans for a cycleway adjacent to the skate park site it’s difficult to see what the connection is between the skate park and pedestrian access.  Skaters will likely use the cycleway to skate to the site as cycleways are designed to be more sympathetic to the needs of wheeled vehicles than pedestrian footpaths are, providing a smoother and more enjoyable ride.  Unless Clover Moore has secret plans to abandon the cycleway as well (which would entirely destroy her first argument against the skate park) there will be already in place a separated path for skaters to use so they don’t conflict with pedestrians. Further the pedestrian link between Kent St and York St through to Wynyard station passes past the proposed skate park not through it. The only real conflict in that area will be between pedestrians & cyclists.

The final argument against the plan is the many unfounded objections raised by local residents of noise, antisocial behaviour, graffiti and the like.  I am a local resident myself and have dealt with most of these arguments in my previous post on this matter.  However one argument that I haven’t tackled previously, which has been trotted out again, is one to the effect that because the site is small, skaters will quickly get bored of it. 

This is yet another baseless skater stereotype.  While a small site may not attract large numbers of regular visitors from outside the area (a situation that I imagine would please many of the objectors) one only need to briefly look through online skateboarding forums to realise how passionate skaters are about their local parks, even if they are small.  A site such as this will likely serve as a hub for local skaters from the younger end of the spectrum for whom it is not easy to travel to Waterloo or other outlying skate parks.  This could include primary school children and young teenagers skating with their friends as well as children as young as four skating under the supervision of their parents.  Older skaters respect the different needs of young skaters and the two can share the same space with very little conflict.  I think even those members of the community who adhere to the stereotypes of skaters as habitual perpetrators of antisocial and criminal behaviour will acknowledge that the presence of young children and parents at the site is likely to severely curtail any such activities.

This disgraceful decision by the increasingly autocratic Lord Mayor and her compliant Clover Moore Party “independents” reminds me of the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In the film a mythical society keeps its children underground because they are seen to be noisy, smelly and troublesome. The town even has a child catcher who scours the town for children using a rattling toy as a lure. Once captured they are bundled into a wooden cage that is mounted on a horse drawn cart and despatched to the underground cave where they won’t bother anyone.

Well at least the young people of Clover Moore’s City know where they belong now. Not in her backyard. And she doesn’t even need to explain herself anymore. She has the numbers and as we have seen from politicians of her kind in the NSW state government – that’s all that matters!

I can only interpret Clover Moore’s actions on this as nothing more than a political move attempting to pander to populist ill-informed hysteria.  I would recommend that all members of the community who want to see this skate park go ahead write to her and her team on Council and tell them how you feel about this decision, how misguided she is in falling for the same unfair stereotypes dragged out again and again and how it will affect your vote at the next state or local council election.  Maybe she will see that abandoning such a well loved plan is not the way to win popularity and we will once again see the park inner Sydney wants and deserves back on the agenda.  

I have serious concerns about the tender process that appears to have been designed to place the City’s tennis courts under the management of a single operator. Should the recommendation of council staff be adopted the operator at Ruchcutters Bay tennis courts will be tossed out after 25 years of service to the community. The Greens councillors consider such a proposal to be unreasonable & unfair.  At an extraordinary meeting on Monday 1st March (attended by around 200 people protesting the recommendation, shown below) the Clover Moore Party used their numbers to defer the tender process for a second time.  Councillor Doutney and myself, along with the Labor and Liberal Councillors, voted against the motion.

As Greens we have three key concerns with the tender process: shortcomings with information provided to councillors, inconsistent treatment of individual tenderers during the process and a failure of the tender criteria & process to capture the “community benefit” that councillors had requested.

The level of benefit that an applicant could provide to the community was meant to be the most heavily weighted criteria upon which a successful tender was assessed. However the hundreds of emails that Councillors received from the Rushcutters Bay community have provided information about the local operator that should have been presented to Councillors in the staff report on the tenders at the Finance Committee on 15th February 2010.

There has been no performance review of the current tennis court operators at Rushcutters Bay, despite this being required by local government tendering guidelines. As a result the free coaching, court hire & equipment hire to children from Darlinghurst & Plunkett St Public Schools over the past fifteen years was not reported to councillors and could not have been considered in the tender assessment.

Another piece of highly relevant information was a proposed Franks Family scholarship of $100,000 per annum to provide coaching & court time for 40 children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Again this was not reported to councillors and therefore could not have been considered in the tender assessment.

The Greens are also very concerned about the inconsistent treatment of the two tenderers who made direct contact with councillors in order to lobby for their bid. One tenderer was excluded and the other, who ended up as the recommended tenderer, was not.  I have read the “no lobbying” clause in the tender and the emails from tenderers (see attachment 1 below). I can’t see why one was ousted and the other was not. The decision seems biased and unfair.

I have since sought legal advice from a senior counsel Francis Douglas QC who advised that the email from the tenderer who was not excluded  had indeed breeched the tender guidelines (see attachment 2 below). Further the awarding of the tender to the offending tenderer could see such a decision invalidated by a court and damages sought from the City of Sydney.

Once the legal advice was tabled the Clover Moore Party scrambled to defer the process until a more thorough investigation could be carried out, but this is not a positive way forward.  To simply delay a process with so many flaws in it so that just one of those flaws can be investigated, while ignoring all the others, is not in the interest of the community. 

People have invested significant time and effort in writing to Council and turning up to meetings in order to try to make sure the process reflects their very reasonable desires for their community. They deserve better than to have to wait once more for a flawed process to turn out an unsatisfactory outcome.  The process needs to be restarted with criteria that will accurately reflect the benefits that each applicant will provide, and has provided previously, to the community.

Attachment 1- Tenderer not to Solicit Council Personel

Attachment 2 - Legal Advice from Francis Douglas QC