Points For Your Letters

• The Water Police site is the most significant publicly owned foreshore land in Pyrmont.

• It must be retained as public open space, not just for residents, but for all of Sydney.

• Residents are outraged, disillusioned and frustrated at the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority’s contrived consultation process for the site. The only choice offered was high-rise development. The option of restoring the site to parkland was not available to the community and thus their preferred choice was excluded.

• The Government is entirely focused on how much money it can squeeze from developing the site. This is at the expense of the needs of the community and visitors to Pyrmont. This Government has already reaped tens of millions of dollars in gains from property development and stamp duty in Pyrmont and Ultimo.

• In July 1995 the Sydney City Council Local Open Space Report identified a shortfall of 8.5 hectares of open space in Pyrmont and Ultimo. Demand more open space.

• The generally accepted ratio for open space is 28 square metres per person. Based on census data (2001, the actual current ratio for Pyrmont/Ultimo is only 14.14 square metres per person. Increased development would further reduce this figure.

• The Section 94 Plan (1994) predicted that the 2001 population for Pyrmont/Ultimo would be 5200. Actual population (census 2001) was 11,817 – an increase of 227%.

• The Public Housing residents in Bowman Street Pyrmont will be affected significantly by this development. Among other things, the tower on Pirrama Road will block out most of their winter sunshine. Many of these people have expressed a sense of hopelessness and inevitability about being blocked in but they are afraid to comment publicly for fear of retribution.

• Ask the politicians, ”Where will the children play?” Most of the parks in the Pyrmont/Ultimo area are ‘pocket parks’. Leftover pieces of land that are of no use to developers. Totally inadequate for childrens’ ball games.