Three hundred resident recently petitioned Willoughby Council in opposition to a proposal to limit through traffic on Coolaroo Road, Lane Cove North. Their petition prayer included “restricting access through this road will force local residents into the already congested traffic on Mowbray Road“.

Traffic problems in the ‘Mowbray’ precinct are well know by Council. There has been a traffic study and report prepared but Council is dragging the chain in holding a public meeting on the traffic issues in the area.

Recently a problem has emerged with the shared use of the O H Reid Oval in Chatswood West.

For decades this oval has work very well with all sorts of sports (soccer, cricket etc.) sharing the space. The sporting groups leave enough room around the perimeter of the playing area for dog owners to exercise their pets.

Recently, schoolboy AFL players from a private school hired the oval for the season. They have insisted on commandeering the whole of the oval area, telling dog-owners that they have an exclusive right.

Local dog owners have met with Mayor Giles-Gidney who is taking the matter up with the General Manager.

It is hoped that common sense will prevail with a return to the shared use model that has worked for years.

AS an aside, it has been suggested that another off-leash park be established on the Greville Street Oval. This will likely be part of a city-wide review of off-leash areas.

The following information was supplied by a local resident.

‘Sign’ the on;line petition to save Currey Park.

At least 10 trees in Currey Park – along with plants and gardens – are about to be sacrificed for a few extra car spaces added to Westfield Chatswood Carpark. The trees to be destroyed include a Forest Red Gum and a Water Gum. Both of these are magnificent mature trees, at least 40 feet in height and classified by Council as of high retention value. The loss of these significant specimens will be of severe detrimental social impact to the community – including loss of shade for recreational users, loss of privacy (from the carpark) for nearby residents and visual degradation for everyone. Their potential loss will also contribute to a loss of Currey Park’s cultural and historical significance.

Until last Wednesday (Aug 5) I was unaware of their imminent destruction.Upon enquiring to Willoughby Council I was advised that notifications were sent out sometime in 2014 with no submissions received. Determination of the “Development” occurred on Oct 27 2014. I placed on record that I am a long term resident of Parkside Lane, Chatswood – overlooking Currey Park and the closest residential building to the Westfield Carpark – and did not receive any notification. Nor, to the best of my knowledge, did any of my neighbours.

Irrespective of notification or otherwise, it is hard to reconcile how this development application was ever approved, when the gains of a few extra car parking spaces are weighed against the substantial loss of public recreation space and amenity. Every day children, couples, families and groups enjoy the peace and serenity of Currey Park. It is an escape and an oasis behind a very busy CBD – something the noisier recreation area on the edge of Chatswood Oval cannot provide. The larger trees are irreplaceable, their canopy treasured. Together with another 8 endangered medium size ones their proposed loss is too great to ignore.

Let us hope that commonsense will prevail at all levels. The community deserves it.

Even Council appears to contradict itself in the Development Application Document when it states: “the proposed additions to the … Car Park will require minor modifications of the existing landscaping within Currey Park”. Can I urge you to take every possible action in reversing or modifying this particular part of the Development Approval before it is too late.

The following information has been supplied by a member of the Association.

There was a recent Forum on Crown Lands Mismanagement organised by David Shoebridge (Greens) and Mick Veitch (Labor).  Messrs Shoebridge and Veitch are now moving for a full parliamentary inquiry into mismanagement of Crown lands in NSW. You can read more about this issue below:

Address to Crown Lands Summit

NST: Council Cops a Big Serve

Aboriginal Land Claim Registered

The following is an exchange of ideas between a Willoughby Councillor and an Electrical Engineer.

Electrical Engineer: Councilor, now that you have endorsed the purchase by Council of an electric car, I would like to be assured that it will only ever be recharged from Council solar farm. If this is done, the emissions savings will be achieved. This may result in the car only being available every second day – one day to use and the next day on recharge. If this is not done, and the car is plugged into a power point, the car will effectively be running on coal and, as well, contributing to an increase in evening peak electricity demand.

I also note that the battery for this vehicle has a replacement cost of about $3500.00. How long it lasts will depend on how often it is recharged. One insurance company is offering a policy to cover battery replacement cost, with a premium of $100.00 per month. Battery replacement cost should be factored into the budget for running costs for the car.

I would appreciate an update from time to time on what savings have been achieved.

Councillor: Thank you for your interest in the electric car. Council has installed quite a large solar farm on top of the Westfield  car  park.  At least two electric car chargers will be installed adjacent to and energy supplied by those PVCs, and available to the public at no cost. The council Nissan Leaf may also use these points, however will be mainly  charged at the council building by electricity supplies by green power.  It is anticipated that the car will do mainly short trips locally, and can be quick charged between trips. I understand that many of the ex car batteries are being used as back up for houses effectively

Electrical Engineer: Thank you for the quick reply. As a professional electrical engineer, with specific knowledge of electricity generation and distribution, let me assure you that “green power” does not save carbon. If you want me to explain this in detail, please let me know. It is all to do with having to have gas-powered generators running all the time to make up for the intermittent solar and wind supplied to the grid under “green power” arrangements. The other point I made was that electric cars tend to be charged at the end of the day and hence add to the peak demand in early evening hours. There is no guarantee that wind will be blowing then and there is certainly no solar available at these times.

I still think that, to ensure the purchase of the electric car meets your objectives of saving on coal or gas fired electricity, you arrange for it to be ONLY charged from the solar farm.

There is much interest in the life cycle analysis and reducing externalities.

Electrical Engineer to Editor: It would be (good) ask for a monthly report on this car. How many kilometres did it run? Was it recharged from the Council’s solar panels? Was it charged from the power grid? If so, at what time of day and how many kWh?

As you might guess, I think electric cars are “green wash”. I have a panel of 4 of Australia’s best electric power engineers working with me and we are trying to get the message across that intermittent renewables like wind and solar save little if any ‘carbon’. It’s to do with having fast acting, but inefficient gas generators running in the background to fill in the gaps in wind and solar output. If you are interested, I can fill you in on the details. My degree is in mechanical and electrical engineering.

What do you think about getting a report? I guess I could ask for it, but having West Ward committee asking puts more people in the loop.

SUNDAY 26 JULY

Willoughby City Council is hosting a National Tree Day activity at Chatswood Rotary Memorial Athletics Field. The activity is an opportunity to meet with your local community and take part in a conservation project.

          Planting Activity will be between 10am-12pm

·         Plant Giveaway for residents between 10am-2pm

·         Mulch give-away for residents on the day

·         Walk and talk ‘For the Birds’ by bird expert Holly Parsons 11-11.30am

Location:  Chatswood Rotary Memorial Athletics Field – off Mowbray Road West off car park.

Parking available.

 Information for Volunteers:  Please wear appropriate clothing (hat, covered shoes, long sleeved shirt and long pants recommended). Bring drinking water.

The following will be provided: Gloves, tools and equipment for planting, watering cans/buckets.

There has been considerable concern recently about safety at a number of school crossings. To clarify some misconceptions I have copied details about the RMS School Crossing Supervisor Program below.

One things that emerged during recent discussions with RMS is that it can take up to 14 weels to have an application determined, Supervisor training is about 2 days.

Supervision makes sense

The School Crossing Supervisor program is a state-wideprogram that contributes to the safety of infants and primaryschool students. School crossing supervisors help studentsuse the crossings on roads adjacent to or nearby schools.School crossing supervisors are provided where transportauthority guidelines and criteria are met.

School crossing supervisors are provided to increase mobilityand safety around schools by enhancing the performance ofpedestrian traffic facilities. School crossing supervisorsprovide additional measures for the safe and efficientmovement of primary and infant schoolchildren.

The School Crossing Supervisors program is an important component of the Safety Around Schools program.

How to apply for a school crossing supervisor

Transport authorities assess sites to determine their eligibility for a school crossing supervisor. Requests for a schoolcrossing supervisor need to be submitted in writing to Roads and Maritime Services by school principals. The Request for aSchool Crossing Supervisor (PDF, 232Kb) must to be signed by the principal and include details of the crossing beingnominated for a supervisor.

To ensure that all the relevant information is provided to transport authorities, school principals can email their request toSCSSydney@rms.nsw.gov.au

Assessment of school crossing supervisor requests

RMS will assess the nominated site against set criteria. For a site to be eligible for a school crossing supervisor it must meetthe following criteria:

• The site must have an existing children’s crossing, pedestrian crossing (zebra) or combined crossing (children’s andzebra).
• The crossing must be used by infant and/or primary school children.
• The site must be located within a 40km/h school zone.
• The crossing must be used by a minimum of 50 unaccompanied infant and/or primary school children per houracross a road carrying 300 passenger car units per hour within the morning and afternoon school zone times. Heavyvehicles over three tonnes unladen are counted as two passenger car units.
• The site must be considered a safe working environment for a school crossing supervisor.

Interested in becoming a school crossing supervisor?

School crossing supervisors play an important part in child road safety. The role would suit people who enjoy working withchildren and who wish to work part-time. RMS regularly recruits for school crossing supervisors throughout the state. Schoolcrossing supervisors need to be:

• Punctual and reliable
• Vigilant, calm and confident with working near traffic
• Able to provide clear instructions
• Able to communicate with adults and children

Employment and training

• All school crossing supervisors are trained before undertaking duty on a crossing
• School crossing supervisors are re-trained on a regular basis
• Criminal record checks are carried before the appointment of school crossing supervisor and at regular intervalsduring the employment period
• School crossing supervisors only work on gazetted school days in 40 km/h school zones.

More information

For further details on the program, please email SCSSydney@rms.nsw.gov.au

The following traffic related matters pertaining to West Ward were placed in front of the RMS Traffic Meeting this morning:

• Victoria Avenue between Chatswood Mall and past Chatswood Chase will be closed for a short time (30 mins) on Sunday 19th July 2015 to celebrate the 100th Year of Women in Policing. This will be a great day and the Baton Relay is sure to be a highlight. Our police ladies are training hard in preparation. There will be food and the rocking Police Band…
• Minor signage changes as requested by residents have been approved at Mooney St, Ellis St, William St, Hatfield St, Anderson St, and Finlay Ave,
• Changes are proposed at the intersection of Albert Avenue with Crispe Lane and Albert Lane – a ‘No Right Turn 10AM- 6:30PM from Abert Avenue into Crispe Lane” and a ‘Left Only restriction from Albert Lane into Albert Avenue” (subjet to RMS approval).
• Westfield Carpark -various changes to entrance/exit gates in Devonshire St, Victor St and Albert Avenue.
• Pedestrian fencing at the intersection of Victoria Avenue and Anderson St (subject to funding).
• Further report on proposal to ban Left Turns from Victoria Avenue into Anderson Street South.
• Recommendations regarding treatment of glassed eating areas near the pedestrian crossing in Anderson Street South.
• Longer handrail barriers at the Westfield carpark exit in Anderson Street South (to keep pedestrian further out from the wall).
• Bollards (with chains) to be installed on the southern side of the pedestrian crossing in Anderson Street South (same as on northern side)
• (subject to RMS approval) – 3 Tonne Load limits on Daisy, Tulip and Violet Streets, Chatswood

In 2013 Council and the Department of Education agreed to the synthetic grass conversion
of the sports field at Chatswood High School Oval. There was significant support for the synthetic field conversion from the community.

In late 2014 asbestos fragments were found in soil samples under the oval and the preferred option to deliver a stable long term synthetic field was estimated at:

• Asbestos remediation cost – $1,704,100
• Field construction + sports area $1,897,500
  Total $3,601,600

Council wrote to the Minister for Education outlining the issues. The Minster responded “While the Department of Education and Communities is supportive of Council‘s plans to
upgrade the field, unfortunately it is unable to provide funding towards the project. ….As it
stands, the sports field is considered suitable for the Department’s purposes“.

The current status is that the Council Officers are recommending :

1. Notes that at this point there is no immediately viable location for synthetic turf
within the Chatswood CBD; and
2. Reconsiders this matter when the findings from the Chatswood CBD Recreation
Needs Study are tabled in late 2015.