Buck-passing and delay at Inner West Council
Justin Simon addresses Inner West council, pointing out that council has had 2318 days to produce a plan and asking for an extension is embarrassing
The Inner West hasn’t done its homework on time and is asking for an extension. Unfortunately the homework in question was set 2318 days ago and there’s only so many times the dog can eat it before your examiner starts asking why you’re leaving it next to the dog’s food bowl. The council officer’s report doesn’t canvass the full history of this rezoning so I’m going to walk through them.
It’s 2015 and the Baird state government is putting out a comprehensive strategy for tens of thousands of homes for the Sydenham-Bankstown corridor, including Marrickville and Dulwich Hill.
It’s 2016 and the community consultation on this strategy is concluded. Literally 95% of complaints have come from east of the Cooks River where all the rich people live. The strategy is adjusted to compensate, heights are reduced in the inner west and left more or less the same in Lakemba and Bankstown.
It’s 2018 and the Berejiklian state government is abandoning the Sydenham-Bankstown strategy, handing back control of Marrickville and Dulwich Hill precincts to Inner West Council. It’s their job to complete the upzoning so homes are ready when the line opens. The clock starts 30 July 2018.
It’s 2022 and Inner West Council planning staff have letterboxed residents to consult them about proposals to build more homes in Marrickville, Dulwich Hill and North Ashfield. Town halls are held in the respective suburbs complaining that the notes they received in their letterbox consulting them are, in fact, evidence that there is no consultation. Council is holding a special meeting to pull these plans, they won’t go ahead.
It’s 2023 and I’m in a room with 30 people aged over 60 being consulted about the principles which will factor in to a plan to develop a housing strategy which will flow onto some zoning changes somewhere, eventually.
It’s 2024 and the metro link to Sydenham has been completed, with the Bankstown conversion to open next year.
We still have no new homes. We have no masterplans. My friends are weighing up whether they have a second kid now and resign themselves to long-term poverty, wait until they’re 40 when fertility odds are sketchy as hell, or move to the middle of nowhere with no support networks.
The Minns state government is going to allow 6 storeys around the relevant stations as TOD precincts. Finally, some progress!
Inner West Council negotiates an extension. We just need a bit more time to do Place-Based Strategic Planning they say.
It’s December 2024 and Inner West Council has predictably missed the deadline. They want another extension.
If you vote for this motion you’re voting for more buck passing and delay like we have experienced over the last 9 years. Your equivocation is failing renters, you are failing young people who can’t afford to move out of home, you are failing ex councillors who can no longer afford to live in the area and you are pushing the waves of migrants who made the inner west great to Canterbury-Bankstown and beyond so all we’re left with is a stale retirement village where nothing ever changes.
You shouldn’t ask for an extension because it’s just straight up embarrassing.
