Dear Supporter,
Last week, the Centennial Park & Moore Park Trust released its draft Moore Park Master Plan. You can view an interactive version of this and download it as a PDF here. The Trust is inviting public submissions by 25 September.
For convenience, you can access volume 1 of the Master Plan here and volume 2 here. The latter includes an interesting analysis of the site, a detailed heritage analysis and an arboricultural assessment and strategic review of Sport and Recreation.
This draft plan is a welcome initiative and we encourage everyone who regards the preservation of Moore Park as being of vital importance to take the time to review it and complete the survey at “Have you say” on the website.
Over the years we have seen Government Ministers, Departments and agencies view Moore Park as something to be filled with things deemed to be “more useful” to the community. [Who can forget Minister Stuart Ayres’ dismissive remark that the Trust’s responsibility for Moore Park is “a historical governance model that’s no longer delivering for the community”.] Of the original 153 hectares set aside for public recreation in 1866, a quarter has been lost.
We believe strongly that green space is not vacant space - it is irreplaceable. Whether or not you wish to provide detailed comments on the draft Plan, we encourage you to communicate this message to the Trust. In doing so, you will enhance its ability to resist future efforts by Government to alienate sections of the Park and so help ensure that it will be preserved for another 150 years.
Car parking on Moore Park East
One issue that will please many of our supporters is the proposed progressive removal of the temporary event on-grass parking in Moore Park East and its replacement with distributed car parking facilities. This idea was floated in the Trust’s Seven Big ideas document late in 2015, In our submission we are argued that a date (31 December 2017) should be set for parking to cease as a deadline will concentrate the minds of people making the necessary decisions. We remain of this view.
Michael Waterhouse
Convenor
Saving Moore Park
2 August 2016
