Support Lindfield

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What is Council Doing with the Lindfield Village Hub?

Dear Resident,

We like to give you an update on the progress of the project from time to time. When there are long periods of silence from us, it just means there’s not much to tell you. This is mostly the case now but we thought we would at least let you know what we’ve been doing to further the cause. But first, a few facts.

  • Time frame of the project - 8 1/2 years

  • Cost of the project to end December 2020 - $8.85m

  • Expression of interest issued - October 2018

  • Request for tender issued to 5 shortlisted developers - December 2019

  • Tenders closed - April 2020 (two tenders received; Fabcot (Woolworths & Aqualand)

  • Council decision (below) - December 2020

Do you think this is a reasonable time frame and cost?

Recent Council Decisions
At the December Council meeting, Councillors resolved to:

  • Note that the Lindfield Village Hub tender and subsequent negotiation period has coincided with the the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a global economic downturn, uncertainty in the property market and impacting on project viability and competitive tension.

  • Note than an offer has not yet been received that is financially viable.

  • Continue to negotiate with any possible providers, while undertaking a review of Council’s project assumptions and objectives.

On 21 January, we wrote to the General Manager as follows:
Dear John,
The resolution on this item stated 3 reasons for not proceeding with the Hub. I believe A. is a ferfy.  B. is always going to be an excuse unless you get the “self funding” outcome.  Everyone knows it is not viable.  The community needs to have information about why it is not viable. Item C. is “continue to negotiate with any possible providers, while undertaking a review of Council’s project assumptions and objectives.”  Can you please tell me what this means and when there will be a report on action made public.

It appears to me that Council officers have “put their pencils down” and aren’t going to do anything.  I can’t believe that there is not some agreement with Fabcot that is acceptable to all parties including the community.  It is simply breathtaking and an appalling lack of accountability that we are 8 years down the track, over $8.35m has been spent, and nothing substantial has happened. The community is being cheated out of the facilities it deserves while a tired old parking lot remains wasted space. I look forward to your reply.

On 12 February we received the following reply from Geoff Douglas, Group Lead Major Projects. Geoff is responsible for the project.

Thank you for your email dated 21 January 2021 re the LVH Council resolution of 8 December 2020. 

 At that meeting Council resolved that a review of the project’s assumptions and objectives should be undertaken. This process has commenced. A report will be brought Council for its consideration as soon as it is completed.  Information will be shared with the community where it does not comprise any ongoing negotiations.

Thank you for your ongoing interest in the Lindfield Village Hub project. 

We’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions as to whether this is an adequate response, however our Committee didn’t think it was. Some of our responses are not printable!

Recent Support Lindfield Activity

In late 2019 and early 2020, we submitted a GIPA (freedom of information) request to Council to obtain a suite of documents and the LVH Request for Tender (consisting of 60 separate documents). Now more than a year later and Council continually to refuse to release the documents, we submitted an application to NCAT (NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal). Mediation, as part of this process, failed to entice Council to release all the documents, most of which are those that the community would be interested in seeing. We now proceed to a hearing which will take another few months. This has taken a huge amount of time by a couple of our Committee members however, we believe that it is worth the effort so an independent legal process will determine if the community has a right to the information the Council continues to fiercely guard. This is all because of Council’s lack of transparency and their continual refusal to share information that the community has a right to.

Talk to Paul Fletcher
As you know, Paul Fletcher is our Federal Member for Bradfield. Paul has always been very helpful and supportive of Support Lindfield and the Hub project. In 2018 he went public to support Woolworths’ unsolicited proposal to Council which we also supported. While he can’t directly impact the progress of the Hub, he has considerable influence in the Liberal party and several of the Councillors (including the Mayor) are members of the Liberal party. Paul is having a series of “listen post community meetings” on 6 March and we encourage you to go along and voice your concerns in whatever way you wish, about the lack of progress with the LVH. Here are times and locations he will be on Saturday 6 March:
Roseville shops - 10.00 to 10.30am
East Lindfield shops - 11.00 to 11.30
West Lindfield shops - 12.00 to 12.30

As usual, we will keep you posted on any progress that occurs with the project, but we’re not too optimistic. Just keep this in mind when you vote at the Council elections in September. And we are also keen to hear from you at info@supportlindfield.net.

Regards,

The Support Lindfield Team
Working for the Community