Laman Street Trees and the Civic and Cultural Precinct Newcastle.

Letters Editor
Newcastle Herald
Bolton Street
NEWCASTLE

Dear Sir,

Laman Street Trees and the Civic and Cultural Precinct Newcastle.

Parks and Playgrounds Movement were recently involved in litigation against the Newcastle City Council. Our action was taken in the public interest because it was manifestly unreasonable for Council to remove the Laman Street landscape without planning consent. Justice Biscoe however in his 36 page Judgment found that Council has power to remove the trees without planning consent. The case was a Judicial Review of Council’s decisions and did not consider the merit or otherwise of the removal.

The importance of the trees was identified at a design workshop earlier this year but a detailed plan for public exhibition was never prepared.  A more experienced Council may have proceed in this instance with the planning of the precinct rather than remove the iconic trees before a plan acceptable to the community could be adopted.

It is now clear that there is no officially acceptable plan and that the risk factor for the trees was distorted by the belief that certain trees were “wind thrown” in the 2007 storm which was not the case.

Doug Lithgow

Blackbutt Reserve

Blackbutt Reserve Didn't Just Happen - Speech Notes 
(Saturday, 9 April 2005) by Doug Lithgow

It is important to realise that the Newcastle Foreshore and Blackbutt Reserve or Barrington Tops Civic Park etc didn’t just become parks they had to be fought for by the Community.

· Blackbutt had its beginnings in the economic recession of the early thirties.

· Unsuccessful auction of Kotara subdivision land. Area known as Blackbutt relatively untouched.

· It was owned by the London based English and Scottish Mining Coy. 4 blocks sold in Reserve. 2 to Returned Sailors & Soldiers, 1 each to Tom Farrell and Thomas Marshall. Tom R.E. Farrell originated the Blackbutt Reserve concept. Tom Farrell’s block Lot 51, 17acres 3 Roods became the first official part of the Reserve Gov. Gaz.March 4 1938. There was slow progress through the thirties efforts made by the Parks and Playgrounds Movement of NSW (Charles EW Bean Sec. David Stead, Dorothea Mackellar Vice Pres.)

· All local Councils were urged by Cardiff Heights Progress Ass.1937 to help buy a further 144 acres total cost 3,500 pounds. Lands Dep. paid 2,500 pounds.

· Final payment 730 pound paid 1940 by the City of Greater Newcastle (Greater Ncle formed 1938)

· The war intervened. Our Tom RE Farrell was a P&PM NSW member and started a branch here the Northern Parks and Playgrounds Movement. NP&PM started the Barrington Tops National Parks 1952 project split in 1956 to form the National Parks Ass. with Rod Earp as Pres.

· 1949 Blackbutt Res. Special Committee -new plans then shelved. Plans for a Trust, Aviaries a Zoo, Gardens etc. Council continued to block extensions to the 131 acres. Northern Parks and Playgrounds Movement formed 1952 Matters came to a head in 1956-7 with proposed subdivision of adjacent 266 acres of bushland purchased by Newcastle Council from the E&S Mining Coy.. P& PM called public meeting July 56 to have the 266 acres added to the Reserve. Widespread support. National Parks Ass formed Rod Earp P&PM President and Newcastle Alderman Joe Richley & Tom Farrell President. spoke strongly -Three of competing plans.

· A new Council 16 Nov 1959 adopted in principle the Special Committee’s proposal that the 270 acres be added 9 votes to 8. Full Council adopted the park plan 11 vote to 9. New plan prepared by G. Baddley, Engineer, E. Wilmot County Planner R. Earp NPA, J. Richley P&PM.

· Permanent workforce appointed to Reserve 1962 - one man and a youth. Picnic area and roads built.

· 1963 High School proposed for Reserve Alienation of 22 acres– Protest meeting and huge public Meeting in Town Hall. Conflict resolved when Minister for Education withdrew proposal. Lots of activity and development.. By 1966 Blackbutt described as a “Little Eden” ‘enchanting bushland’ a great blessing to City.

· August 1966 the Highway 23 proposal to cut through 3 of the valleys of the Reserve. The Blackbutt Action Committee set up under the leadership of Dick Woodgate as secretary. ‘Save Blackbutt” fight starts in earnest July 1967 when City Council reaffirms its support for the expressway through the Reserve. The fight raged on 800 people at a City Hall Public Meeting declared no expressway in the Reserve and the Expressway should be routed to the West of Lake Macquarie.

· Further meetings 1972 and 1973. By Dec 74 there was overwhelming support for the Reserve. Federal Parliamentary Committee found that in no circumstances should Highway 23 violate Blackbutt. Peter Morris as Federal Transport Minister initiated the west of Lake as part of the National Highway Scheme.

· Blackbutt Landscape Study prepared 1976 proposed restoration Mine site implemented Nov. 1983 by Lord Mayor Joy Cummings. Comprehensive Plan of Management 1989.

· Improved Wildlife and aviary exhibits proposed 1992 and constructed.

· Continuing improvements to Blackbutt. Blackbutt is now ingrained as part of the folk law of Newcastle. ‘Dick became the Chairman of the National Trust Hunter Region

· 79 Newcastle organizations supported in writing the Reserve Proposal in 1957 and support is continuing. 180ha or 449ac still not dedicated until the 80’s.

Doug Lithgow

Laman Street Civic Precinct Design Framework

Parks and Playgrounds Movement calls upon Newcastle City Council to officially exhibit the Draft ‘Laman Street and Civic Park Precinct Design Framework’ and resolve the design framework before contracts are entered into for implementation of the Laman Street section.

TO DOWNLOAD THE REPORTS CLICK HERE:
http://www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/news__and__events/laman_street_-_civic_precint

Please see the information provided below which sets out the history of Council’s action on the Precinct and explains the importance of resolving this design matter so that the design can be transparently determined and professionally implemented.

This is a very important matter in the heart of Newcastle and must be implemented in an open and transparent way and not by the clandestine techniques being used currently by the Newcastle Council which denies the people of Newcastle a voice in the determination of the design process.

The Civic Precinct is another project started by the Parks and Playgrounds Movement so many years ago and we have had to watch Councils over the years not really know what was important in the project and now move in a ham-fisted way to widen Laman Street into the Civic Park and cut the trees down before finalising a workable design acceptable to the community.

We are adamant that the design be properly and professionally determined implemented in a transparent way now.

We have had to urgently seek a remedy in the Land and Environment Court to prevent the Council misusing the Roads Act to widen Laman Street into the Civic Park and cut down trees.

I would appreciate your help in reading the statement attached and making representations to your member of Parliament and the Minister for Local Government and the Minister for the Hunter and the Minister for Planning and shadow Ministers too.

This is a very urgent matter.

Please Help.

If you would like to kindly make a donation to help defray court cost we would be very appreciative.

Thanks

Yours Sincerely
Doug Lithgow.


Laman Street Civic Precinct Design Framework

Parks and Playgrounds Movement calls upon Newcastle City Council to officially Exhibit the Draft ‘Laman Street and Civic Park Precinct Design Framework’ and resolve the design framework before contracts are entered into for implementation of the Laman Street section.

Parks and Playgrounds Movement have a long term interest in the Civic Precinct. We first placed a concept for the Civic Precinct before the Newcastle City Council which was received at the Works Committee Meeting of the 16/4/1968. Council did not have a professional Town Planner at that time and the concept languished. We had to lobby over many years to get Council to appoint a Planner. However Council began acquiring property around Civic Park and implemented projects such as the Administration Centre and Wheeler Place Plaza.

In the past decade and a half we have seen Council involved in proposals for the precinct:

1. the Allen Jack and Cottier Civic Design 1995,
2. Council’s Plan of Management for Civic Park and Laman Street 2000,
3. The Government Architect Newcastle Civic Cultural Centre Master Plan 2003.
4. The Civic Precincts Park Plan of Management Review and Public Domain Plan 2005,

The Civic Park Plan of Management (Point 2. above) was the only plan officially exhibited and formally adopted. (A requirement under the Community Land provisions LG Act 1993)
The professional development of the latest Precinct Design Framework and its implementation following official exhibition has been hijacked by the Council’s Asset Management Group with its exaggerated tree risk analysis and what appears to be the General Manager’s ambulatory powers under delegation to remove trees and widen the Laman Street into Civic Park.

This has prevented the proper resolution of the Precinct Design Framework in a transparent way with public scrutiny and ownership of the ultimate overall scheme and is to be deplored. Council’s own report of the 18th May 2010 recommended public exhibition of the Precinct Design Framework. This transparent process is absolutely essential in order for the Design Framework to be professionally resolved and transparently adopted for implementation.

The public may remember the way the Newcastle Council closed the unique Fernleigh Tunnel in 1996 on exaggerated risk grounds. This delayed the implementation of the Fernleigh Track for many years. The Track with its distinctive historic tunnel is now open and well used and is a much appreciated part of Newcastle’s public infrastructure.

Parks and Playgrounds Movement calls for the Public Exhibition of the Draft Design Framework for the Civic Park Precinct and its transparent resolution.

Does Civic Park Really Need Fixing?

Dear Colleagues and citizens of the planet,

Please have a look at this Youtube clip:.

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=0ahYGhHlP3w

This short Video puts the finger on the Newcastle pulse and is clearly critical of the negative myopia of the Newcastle Councillor’s who on the 17th August 2010 decided:

“ The Hills fig trees in Laman Street Newcastle between Darby Street and Dawson Street be removed as soon as possible and replaced with a central line of Hills Figs as soon as suitable trees can be provided"

Such an action would put our Cultural Precinct back in the fifties.

It will take thirty years for the replacement trees to reach a mature form and a row of trees in not the cathedral quality we enjoy in Laman Street now.

Hardly the action of mature men and women with the city at heart.

Look about you see and acknowledge what is good and work to protect it for all to enjoy.

Doug Lithgow

Other videos:


Save the Figs: The 8 Stupid Reasons to Cut Down Nice Trees">Save the Figs: The 8 Stupid Reasons to Cut Down Nice Trees
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=uuDGEQn4wrw

The Perilous Figs of Laman St
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtlqyd3cojY

"HONK to save Laman Street Figs" , Newcastle.
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=kD6Paljl0sU

GPT Pullout Provides City with a New Opportunity

GPT pulling out of Newcastle gives the city a new opportunity to identify the real issues and think of real people not just property speculation.

People with the future of Newcastle at heart may be interested in this letter P&PM sent to the Minister for the Hunter in July 2009. With GPT pulling out of their proposed Newcastle operation there is another opportunity to look at the real issues and the real people and not just the property speculators.

I think this letter is just as relevant as it was when it was written. It was the P&PM submission to the HDC Report. The HDC is not the sort of body that should produce such a report and it would be a disaster if this is to be their revised Approved Scheme under the Growth Centres Act slipped through as the 1988 Hurst CBD POM was. It sets out our attitude to the Report

Please read and forward on to friends if you think it a fair statement.

Doug Lithgow

Wednesday, 22 July 2009

The Hon Jodi Mckay MP Minister for the Hunter.
Governor Macquarie Tower
Level 37, 1 Farrer Place,
SYDNEY NSW 2000



Dear Minister,

HUNTER DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Newcastle City Centre Renewal Report to the NSW Government
March 2009

Parks and Playgrounds Movement wish to respond to the Report on the HDC Web Site and a News Release from the Member for Newcastle and NSW Minister for the Hunter titled Newcastle City Centre Renewal Report to the NSW Government March 2009

The Movement does not share the News Release enthusiasm for the Report on the HDC web site.

The Movement has seen many visions and rejuvenation reports come and go over the past fifty years. Sadly it is at the time of crisis as with the current World Financial Crisis and the December 1989 Newcastle Earthquake that vested interests promote visions and reports with little consideration of the interest of the general public. City planning must serve the general interest of the public and not be based on property speculation and arbitrary individual wants.

To be effective planning must be based on a realistic understanding of needs and the morphology of the City and this is best achieved by sound incremental development that identifies and protects the essential heritage features that give meaning and understanding to the development pattern while recognising the potential and problems of the future.

Minister for the Hunter Jodi McKay said there is no hiding from the issue of rejuvenating the Newcastle City Centre and the NSW Government wants the community to help shape the future of inner-city Newcastle and the Hunter region.

The HDC Report is full of motherhood statements that it then denies in its detail.

The Report is unmistakably biased and prejudiced against passenger rail services which are in reality crucial to the 21st century liveable city.

The report boils down to a plea for more money for the HDC and for the Commonwealth to finance the arbitrary movement of facilities to new locations.

A perfect example of this faulty thinking in action was when the Royal Newcastle Hospital was removed after the 1989 Earthquake from the Newcastle East where it had an excellent location and public access, to New Lambton Heights where it was sited on the Highway 23 road reservation causing intractable problems such as the requirement for a new and more environmentally destructive highway relocation and transport and access problems. The removal of the hospital from Newcastle has been the single most debilitating action in the old town. The HDC and City Council have been hiding from this fact and blame everything else but themselves for their action. No amount of residential redevelopment can return the activity that had evolved in that area around the Hospital over nearly two centuries.

The report makes a plea for money to finance four principal projects:

    * relocation and expansion of the University of Newcastle’s campus in the city.
    * relocation of the Court house and legal offices to the Civic.
    * removal of railway infrastructure from the city and construction of interchange facilities near Wickham.
    * redevelopment of Hunter St Mall.

None of these wish list projects really require the removal of the rail infrastructure from the city to be initiated. Indeed all of the projects if really needed would benefit from the retention of passenger rail services.

Ironically it is the Madison Wing at the Hospital site that was the first real university push into the city and that is earmarked for demolition!  Of course the university should be encouraged to consolidate its city campus and student accommodation but that will be much more successful with passenger rail services are retained.

The existing Court House precinct has a logic and distinctive presence that is capable of expansion where it is rather than be relocated at Civic. It would be far more logical to return the  NSW Department of Planning to the civic where it would have a logical presence as it used to have when the Northumberland County Council and the SPA were located at the Civic.

The GPT suburban mall type proposal should never have been facilitated by the LEP for the CBD. It will destroy permanently the historic Dangar Axis which defines the old cathedral town and will overpower the pedestrian scale of the existing Hunter Street Mall area with its ugly elevated carpking structure. This elevated parking structure will also obliterate the historic panorama from the Cathedral. The existing Market Street –Queens Wharf –Cathedral (Dangar Axis) link should be emphasised by any new development in the Mall area. Newcastle Council had an excellent proposal recently before it that satisfied this important criterion.

The removal of passenger rail services from Newcastle as proposed would wipe out the opportunity of Newcastle to show off its unique sense of place and prevent the Newcastle Lake Macquarie and Maitland urban area from having a transit orientated future.

The following check list is provided to help understand what is happening to Newcastle.

Living City – since HDC the city has declined, principally because of the1988 CBD Business Plan which was meant to revitalise the city has unfortunately become a blue print for its demise.

The $100 million dollars Building Better Cities funding which should have been used to create a public domain foreshore park extending the Joy Cummings 1981 Harbour Foreshore Scheme through to Throsby Creek was not well used. The public domain foreshore parkland is still needed as the centrepiece of the Central Honeysuckle development. The Honeysuckle Approved Scheme Masterplan proposed a rail overbridge crossing at Wickham which should have been built at the same time as the Carrington Bridge with ‘Building Better Cities’ money.

Economic Diversity - should be encouraged by developing the natural and heritage advantages of the City Centre. The positive promotion of the city has never been attempted and it is always stories of woe. We have a magnificent theatre in the Victoria Theatre but it is empty and we never have promoted and developed the positive advantages of the Old Town.

Revitalise retail – It is not practical or in the public interest to try to make the Cathedral town of Newcastle a Charlestown like suburban shopping mall. It needs to retain its traditional character and be a speciality market orientated place something like the university Cathedral town of Durham in England or like the Rocks in Sydney.

Commercial Investment- since HDC and the city centre Committee, the inner city has fallen prey to property speculation rather than to sound commercial development. This HDC Report unfortunately is heavily skewed in favour of property speculation rather than practical public interest planning for a future city that will feature Transit Orientated Development.

Public Transport – the report as shown above struggles to thwart the creation of a public transit orientated city by being prejudiced against our existing passenger rail infrastructure. Passenger rail services have been an essential and distinctive feature of the city of Newcastle for over 150 years. Yes the services should be improved and modernised and trains should not be stabled in the open foreshore corridor. Improvements should be made to Newcastle Station. The grand entrance reopened and an arrival and departure concourse developed.

Criticism of 8 car rail sets with only a few passengers have been made but Newcastle is currently the end of the CityRail electric service and 8 car sets will only be full when special events are planned in the city on the foreshore. There is no reason why sets could not be more often split into 4 car sets at Gosford for services on to Newcastle. Special daily excursions should be organised from Sydney and the Central Coast to visit Heritage sites, the Convict Mines, Macquarie Pier and Nobbys, Fort Scratchley and Christ Church Cathedral. These things are merely operational details that can be altered to fit circumstances. Newcastle never promotes its natural and historical advantages. We hope that the current passenger bus fleet will be replaced by lighter electric powered vehicles in the new city of the future.. If there is an interchange to be constructed on the City Rail network in the northern area it should be as planned at Glendale in the Lake Macquarie Local Government area where it is more central and supported by all the local Councils.

The proposals for public transport in the report are not well conceived and are not in the interests of the public who use public transport.

Revitalising the Hunter Street Mall, Celebrating the special character of Newcastle and improving the quality of the public landscape and obtaining a better standard of architecture in new buildings are matters we all strive for but they will not be achieved until we truly identify the problems and potential of the existing city and promote the city in a positive and practical way.

Yours Sincerely,

Doug Lithgow  Freeman of the City of Newcastle
Parks and Playgrounds Movement