Artarmon Loop

This is so exciting! Councillors have been insistent that we must do more to make public transport a practical option and given that we have such an incompetant, lazy and corrupt state government - local government is beginning to show the way forward. Councils including Lane Cove, Manly and City of Sydney have already established local bus routes which meet the needs of their residents and now its our turn to step into this important but risky business. It can't be an actual business as the aforementioned corrupt and lazy state government has already sold off the city's bus routes and legislatively prohibited anyone else from charging a fee for service! The Artarmon LOOP therefore - is FREE. Initially we will fund the service through our e-restore levy and we look forward to being able to secure sponsorship for it. It will run every 15 minutes starting on Monday the 4th May, Mon - Fri 6am - 6pm. The LOOP starts at St Leonards Station, goes up Herbert St, across to Reserve Rd and then onto the Pacific Highway, past the redeveloping ABC (media) site and down to the station again. It will even be able to carry your bike! For more details on the route click here

Earth Hour '09 in Naremburn

Pretty damn groovy. 'Way cool' according to one overheard 14 year old. Naremburn Park was the venue for this exciting event last night, as Willoughby Council marked Earth Hour, 2009. Stalls with sustainably harvested and prepared foods, valet bike parking, local Sustainability Groups and Progress Associations were set up along with Council displays of environmentally friendly home modification ideas and demonstrations. Council events don't usually attract Gen Y but his time was different. With Jane Caro (of the Gruen Transfer)as MC, hundreds of locals & quite a few from further afield lit candles, quaffed, munched and generally chilled to the sounds of the Rythmn Hunters and the sights of two excellent fire twirlers. Finally, there was a 'drum in' where those who had attended a drumming workshop earlier in the evening and those who had made their drums in the workshop tent just let it rip. Loved it. Well done Council! Check the Earth Hour website for news and pics of the event, worldwide and here's a few more from Naremburn :

Cars eat Naremburn

"Naremburn West" lies between the North Shore rail line and Willoughby Rd. Its northern boundary is the Gore Hill Freeway wall and the southern one is Dalleys Rd. This latter is a favourite rat run described by my friend Bruce as the only toll free route from the M2/Gore Hill Freeway to Mosman and Manly. Waters Rd and Dargan St lie at the heart of this part of the suburb and the residents of both are fed up with the problems associated with commuter parking generated by nearby St Leonards. Waters Rd residents already have a resident parking scheme. Dargan St residents called a very well attended meeting last Wednesday morning (see pic) to put their case for one to Council staff and local Councillors.
On top of this, Railcorp are preparing to refurbish the Ella St bridge (you know, the one with no footpath). It seems they will now install the footpath Council has been requesting for years so that's a good thing. However the residents of Dalleys, Waters and Park have become justifiably anxious about the displacement effect of closing the bridge on their already crowded and very narrow streets.
At the Naremburn Progress Association meeeting last Thursday, the bridge closure generated a lively discussion of the options. It was suggested that rather than tinkering with the current resident parking scheme in Waters Rd, we might trial closure of BOTH bridges (Lambs Rd and Ella St) for the period of the reconstruction. That would mean the only routes in and out of this part of the suburb would be via Willoughby Rd (Rohan and Dalleys Rds). A majority of those present supported the idea of trialling closure of both bridges and called for a public meeting to test the reaction of a wider group of the local community.
The old timers amongst us remember this proposal being floated in the late 90s. We were not ready for it then - do you think we are yet?

New residents

OK so I'm a lousy photographer...
A year or so ago I comissioned Alois & Bronwyn to design & construct a nest box. I've never really looked inside so I was chuffed when these sleepy heads emerged yesterday when I was pruning the crepe myrtle in which I have lodged the box!

10 Day Approvals

The first of the State Government's "cookie cutter" Housing Codes comes into force next week on the 27th February. It applies to single dwellings, one and two storey both new and alterations and additions. The Parliamentary Library has produced an E-Brief in plain English. The Urban Taskforce (aka the development industry) love it, others including the Local Government Association do not. Fortunately, certain zonings are exempt - as a large part of Willoughby LGA is currently zoned Scenic Protection/Environmentally sensitive (2a2) or within a Conservation Area, we have some protection from the excesses of this one. It is but the first in a raft of new planning provisions we have to cope with this year...

A Community in search of its School

“ The importance of a local school to community creation is chronically underestimated in modern Sydney…”

Jane Caro, media & advertising personality, champion of Public Education & Willoughby resident in the Artarmon Gazette February 2009.

Jane went on to say that Artarmon is fortunate in having maintained that connection. Neighbouring Naremburn as we know, has not been so lucky.

Last Friday afternoon Jane Simmons Regional Director DSE (Northern Sydney) and Kathryn Brennan, School Education Director were good enough to meet with members of the School Working Party formed after the public meeting we held last June. The meeting was chaired by local MP Gladys Berejiklian, and attended by Council staff including the GM Nick Tobin, Progress Association members Kevin Fitzpatrick, David Lendrum, Annaliese Appleton and Karen Pearson. All of whom I have to say are fantastic advocates for this community and specifically, for our access to a publicly funded primary school.

The good news is that apparently there has been some revision of the previous Departmental position that there were no grounds for the community assertion that the number of pre-school age children in our suburb is burgeoning. It seems that for some reason they were convinced that although the under 5s might be increasing this was no cause for concern since the numbers were oddly enough, dissipating once the cohort hit the school attendance age. Kind of like magic. Anyway, possibly prompted by our collective insistence, it seems that new information is to hand and is being assembled – in order to build a case for capital enhancement of existing school site/s. I understood that the preferred approach is to apply for funds to construct two storey buildings on existing sites to replace current single storey buildings. We expressed surprise and relief to know that such efforts were being undertaken on our behalf and hoped that the information might be shared with us forthwith.

The bad news is of course that Minister Firth refuses to meet with us, that our dream of reinstating a primary school in Naremburn is repeatedly ruled out of the question and that meanwhile Willoughby Public School enrollments stand at 804, Cammeray at 705, Artarmon at 686 and that the Willoughby electorate remains the demountable capital of the lower North Shore.

Whilst the cynic in me can’t help but think that there will be a discreet contract out there for design & construct of two storey demountables, I can report that the resolution of Friday’s meeting was that we expect a further meeting of the Working Party to be informed as to the Department’s plan for managing public primary school education demand in Willoughby before the end of June - with a further public meeting shortly thereafter.

Channel 9 digs in

I received notice of a Development Application on the Willoughby Rd site last week and was curious to know whether this was a cosmetic makeover in preparation for a further attempt to sell off the site or whether it might mean improved/extended operational investment by the current owner. Apparently its the latter. The proposal being notified is for a building to accommodate storage, electrical and mechanical workshops. The new building is to sit where the former (now adjoining) sub-station was. It will be 2 storeys but as level one is significantly lower than ground level at Artarmon Rd, it will present as on single storey. Although the uses don't generate increased demand for parking, we will take the opportunity to revisit discussions we had once before about their instituting a shuttle service from Artarmon Station - or perhaps their contributing to the cost of running Council's local bus service which is due to commence mid year. This service will initially be a loop running between St Leonards Station and the Artarmon Industrial Area and including once it is operational, the redeveloped ABC site. I'm quite sure residents in surrounding streets who are being parked out by Channel 9 staff will be pleased to see less competition for kerbside parking - which would be our objective. Let me know your take on this - is it mostly Channel 9 staff who park on surrounding streets - let me know your thoughts?