Lord Mayor,

Councillor Christine Forster and I campaigned hard on a platform that you LM, and your CM Independents have a hatred of car ownership – manifesting itself in reducing parking at every opportunity.

I know you fought back heavily LM.

And you are to be commended for instigating a process to rethink the parking issue.

But in this chamber one week ago today during briefings, we had our first discussion on parking policy.

During that meeting one of your Councillors berated a Councillor on this side of the table and we heard the extraordinary thinking that the future of Sydney is “Young People, with No Kids and No Car”.

This bitter dystopia is something that will be fought by many Councillors in this chamber and I hope from both sides of the table.

So we turn to Glebe. We’re not cutting 1 or 2 parking spaces – we are taking 5. And why? So we can move the Dunny.

As the LM know tennis is a wonderful game. It’s an opportunity to invite one’s friends from all over Sydney to enjoy a game and share a cup a tea and sponge cake.

But now, they’re won’t be anywhere to park and the precious parking of residents will once again be under pressure.

Putting parking to one side. We’re taking private toilets facilities and turning them in public ones right in the back doors of the residents. We taking something that works, something that everyone is happy with and turning it into a Council experiment?

We’ve heard the concerns:

• Honeypot for crime, unsafe for children, transferring problems from one part of Glebe to another, dealing.
• Are we trying to drive out families so we can get young people, with no kids and no cars to move in?
• I’m worried there’s something systemically wrong in Committees. Last month we had the Berwick Lane Childcare Supercentre mayhem – thankfully you stepped in Lord Mayor

And now we have this dunny debacle

We have 1900 staff in council and some of the finest employees. I just can’t understand how stuff like this with glaring holes keeps coming to Committee.

You’d hope proposals were of such high quality that Councillors could snooze in Committees – instead it feels like we’re running a Marathon.