How Councillors Have Voted

Does Council support community consultation?

We hear a lot about community consultation – North Sydney Council says it does a great deal of it. Ever wondered whether consultation influences Councillors in how they vote?

Council’s ambivalent attitude to cars is instructive – voting for more roads in the east (Neutral Bay village) but less parking in the west (St Leonards Crows Nest through to Milsons Point).

Keep in mind that each Councillor gets elected on a platform of polices. In my mind the platform is a covenant with voters so should take precedence over the learnings from community consultations.

There have been two community consultations that I think particularly important.

First, the Young Street Plaza in the Neutral Bay village – turning a road into a playground.

The last Council resolved to convert Young Street (between Military Road and Grosvenor Lane into a pedestrian plaza and established a temporary conversion to allow comment. The present Council undertook an extensive community consultation on the proposition that the pedestrian plaza be undone and opened up to cars.

Council’s consultation involved both a survey (82 responses) and a call for submissions (27)

The survey results were reported:
By far the most common response to the proposal was general support for retention of the plaza. In the survey, over half the respondents (51%) answered “yes” to the question “I support the installation of the proposed plaza” without offering additional comment. A further 17% of the responders answered “yes with modifications” bringing the total support for the project in the survey to over two thirds (68%) of responders.

The 27 submissions:
• 9 offered support for the project,
• 4 suggested that changes be made,
• 2 offered comments/queries, and
• 12 opposed the project outright.

Contrary to the survey results and the submissions, Council voted to reopen what was the Young Street pedestrian plaza to cars – the vote was:

For: Councillor Baker, Councillor Beregi, Councillor Bourke, Councillor Lamb, Councillor Santer and Councillor Welch and Councillor Spenceley.
Against: Councillor Drummond, Councillor Gibson and Mutton.

A case of Council ignoring its Community Consultation.

Second, Parking is a growing issue and set to become larger as more apartments are built in North Sydney.

The proposal to reduce parking in new apartment buildings in and around transport hubs from St Leonards and Crows Nest and down to Milsons Point was put to Council.

Council proposed that the number of parking spots for apartments be reduced. Expressed in aggregate terms the reduction was for apartments:

Apartments	Old Code Max no of car spaces / unit	New Code Max no of car spaces / unit
Studio	1	0.3
One bedroom	1	0.4
Two bedrooms	1	0.6
Three or more bedrooms	1.5	0.7

A very extensive consultation process was undertaken by Council – the result with 351 submissions received was;:
• 20% supported the proposed reduction in car parking, and
• 80% objected to the reduction.

Council did the opposite and voted to reduce parking, against the view of Council’s surveyed respondents – the vote was:

For the reduction in parking: Councillors Baker, Beregi, Bourke, Lamb, Santer, and Welch.
Against (supporting the respondents): Councillors Gibson, Lepouris, Mutton, and Spenceley.

The next opportunity to judge the effect of community consultation on Council will come when Council considers a proposal by Transport for NSW to build a linear ramp for bikes through Bradfield Park Central and North.

The opposition to Transport for NSW’s proposal has manifested in several public meetings (drawing audiences from 200 to 500) and a petition to be presented to the Parliament of NSW with more than 8,000 signatures.

Council has allowed TfNSW to submit an application to the Heritage Council seeking approval to build its linear ramp but has so far not given owners consent for the construction of the linear ramp. The community has put forward the Community Cycle Ramp (CCR), a fold back ramp that preserves parkland and the heritage features of the locality and which is safer for pedestrians and cyclists and which Council has supported.

Councillors will likely consider their collective position as custodians of Bradfield Park in the next month or so.

How will Council vote? This discourse leads us on to voting patterns – are there any?

During 2022 and 2023 (up to and including 25 September), there were 83 votes which were not unanimous. Of these:

• 0n 71 of 82 votes,
  •  Mayor Baker and Councillors Lamb, Welch, Santer, Beregi and Bourke voted in support of the motion passed as did Councillors:
    ▪ Spenecely (on 36 occasions),
    ▪ Gibson (on 10 occasions,
    ▪ Lepouris/Drummond (on 15 occasions), and
    ▪ Mutton (on 29 occasions).

• Of the other 11 of the 82 votes a dominant group prevailed:

In two instances, the Mayor’s casting vote decided the matter

To the questions “how will Council Vote” – the answer is that it will likely be decided on the floor of the chamber.

Ian Mutton