THE SUFFOLK Park Progress Association has called on Greens Member for Ballina, Tamara Smith, to go to bat against the NSW Department of Education in its bid to sell of valuable community land at Suffolk Park.
Progress Association President, Don Maughan, has called on Tamara to support community efforts to thwart Department of Education plans to sell Lot 60, Beech Drive, Suffolk Park
In a recent letter to Tamara, Don wrote:
Dear Tamara
Proposal re Dept of Education land Lot 60 DP817888
I am writing to you as President of the Suffolk Park Progress Association. We are seeking your support to obtain for the Suffolk Park community the block of Dept Education land located off Beech Drive in the heart of Suffolk Park.
History and Current Use
Suffolk Park is a community of almost 4000 residents of which approximately 750 are children of school age, and a growing number of young families with pre-schoolers.
Part of the land in question is currently leased as a soccer field to Byron Shire Council until Dec 2018. It is also used for cricket and junior athletic activity. The Suffolk Park Soccer Club uses it as their home ground and training centre. They have over 100 registered players and field 5 senior men’s and women’s teams and 3 junior teams in the North Coast competition.
Since 2013 a spontaneous pop-up community garden has developed adjacent to the soccer fields, on the non-leased part of the Dept Education land. This community garden is being used to grow food for sharing in the community and also by the local pre-school as an education facility for the kids. For example, in August the pre-school organised a sunset lantern parade down to the community garden for song and celebration around a fire-pit. There were over 85 small children taking part in the parade accompanied by parents, siblings and grandparents. It was a wonderful and very moving coming together of community in this special location.
Adjacent Council community land
To the East of Lot 60 is Council community land with sporting and recreational facilities as follows: an adventure playground, a basketball court, a skatepark, two tennis courts and an amenities block. There are also three covered picnic tables that are very popular for birthday parties and weekend family activities.
Reason for Proposal
This land, both leased and adjoining, is the only large area of grassy open space that our community has, and is used extensively every day of the week for organised formal sport and general leisure and physical activity such as personal training and fitness. On weekends it is not uncommon to see more than 160 people engaged in various activities in the precinct, particularly birthday parties and competitive sporting events.
There is a basic change room and amenities on the adjacent community-owned land which is used by the sporting clubs. These facilities need urgent upgrading to cater for the increased demand, however Council will not allocate funds for this until we can get either a significant lease extension, or purchase the land from the Dept Education.
Land for Sale
Current classification of the land is SP2 Infrastructure. We are advised that Dept Education is putting the land up for sale.
In the past I have spoken to Mr. Joseph Pascuzzo, Manager of Properties for the Dept Education, on the subject of a lease extension and/or purchase at a non-commercial rate. Also we have been talking to Byron Shire Council about the possibility of purchasing the land. The Dept Education people have indicated a price tag to Byron Shire Council in excess of $4 million.
Our vision for the future
If we are successful in obtaining the Dept Education land, our vision is:
- To extend and improve the community garden facility with some permanent shade structure or rotunda for increased community use
- To build a cycle learning streetscape track so that our children can learn and practice the skills of street bike riding in a safe environment
- To develop a half soccer field for little league play
- To landscape and plant shade and fruit trees and seating for community relaxation and enjoyment