Ex-Waverton Bowling Club site

North Sydney Council contacted NSW Crown Land (within NSW Department of Industry) when the Waverton Bowling Club went into liquidation, advocating that this parcel of land should revert on a permanent basis to Council’s care and control, like the remainder of the parkland surrounding the Club.

Council has gained a six-month lease (executed on the 7 May 2019), allowing us to carryout initial due diligence on the site as a first step towards a potentially more permanent transfer solution. This involves undertaking a condition assessment of the building, preliminary contamination review of the site, a risk assessment of the grounds and community engagement. This parcel of land is approximately 5,000m².

Two stages of community engagement have been undertaken as detailed below. On 28 October 2019, Council resolved to endorse the recommendation (refer to report in document library):

1. THAT Council write to the NSW Department of Industry - Crown Reserves strongly advocating the position that the Ex Waverton Bowling Club land must be reintegrated into the existing Waverton Park Reserve under Council’s Care and Control for the purpose of providing parkland for public recreation.

2. THAT Council request that the Local Member Felicity Wilson be advised of the community position and asked to advocate for the land to be returned as community parkland for the purpose of providing public recreation.

Stage 1 engagement: 27 June - 24 July 2019

Council sought suggestions from key stakeholders regarding proposed use of the site. A broad range of uses suggested, however, regardless of the preferred use, the unified theme of submissions was that the site needs to remain as public land and meet community needs.

Stage 2 engagement: 19 August to 15 September 2019

This stage and sought wider community feedback via a survey, on the identified uses for the site, seeking ranking/prioritisation of the options. Whilst there was differing views on what specific purpose the site should be ultimately used for i.e. either passive recreation (54% of respondents) or active recreation (42% of respondents) parkland or a mixture of both. The strong position was that the land should be reintegrated into the existing Waverton Park Reserve for the purpose of providing parkland for public recreation that meets the community’s needs.

The Building Condition Assessment is available in the document library - refer to Attachment 2 of Council Report 24 June 2019 - OSE02.

The Preliminary Site Contamination Report is available in the document library - refer to Attachment 1 of Council Report 28 October 2019 - Item 24.