Randwick Council urges halt to stadium demolition, rules out legal fight
Randwick City Council has joined two neighouring Sydney councils in urging the NSW government to halt its plans to knock down Allianz Stadium, but ruled out joining a legal fight against the looming demolition.
The eastern suburbs council has echoed concerns from Waverley Council and the City of Sydney that legal advice suggested the state government had unlawfully approved its controversial demolition of the Moore Park stadium.
But with early demolition works on the stadium under way, Randwick's Labor mayor Kathy Neilson said the council would not pursue legal action being contemplated by Waverley Council due to the risk of significant costs arising from a lawsuit.
Cr Neilson said councillors raised concerns over the validity of the consent for the demolition after considering five sets of legal advice, which scrutinised the government's approval process, at a closed extraordinary meeting on Tuesday night.
She said the legal advice suggested the Department of Planning had failed to adequately consider design excellence provisions that needed to be satisfied under the relevant planning laws.
“The government needs to follow the same rules for this project as all other developments. You would think that for a project of this significance, design excellence would be of primary concern and considered upfront."
Councillors unanimously resolved to call on Planning Minister Anthony Roberts to suspend all demolition work until a valid development application was lodged.
Cr Neilson said the council had considered taking legal action to stop the demolition but decided it was not appropriate to expose ratepayers to the "potential substantial costs from court proceedings".
"The minister should be following correct processes without the need for court action by local councils," she said.
Instead councillors resolved to spend a maximum $5000 on a "public information campaign" urging the government to pause the demolition and "give proper consideration to design excellence provisions".
Waverley councillors last week resolved to write to Mr Roberts to request the demolition be suspended until the minister addressed any errors in the approval process.
The council also voted to launch legal action against the government in the NSW Land and Environment Court on two conditions: that another council joined the proceedings, and that the Minister did not provide a satisfactory response to its concerns.
But Major John Wakefield on Wednesday said the council could pursue legal action alone as it had a strong case and "a very principled position".
"We're considering our options now about going solo and I'll be speaking with my fellow councillors over coming days."
A spokesman for Mr Roberts said he reiterated previous comments in which he rejected Labor's advice that the consent was in breach of planning policy as "fundamentally, categorically wrong".
Mr Roberts also previously said the criticism of design excellence standards had "no basis in fact".
An Infrastructure NSW spokeswoman said that "all conditions of consent necessary to commence soft strip-out demolition work have been satisfied." That work started on Wednesday.
In December, Opposition Leader Michael Daley released legal advice from planning lawyer Tim Robertson, SC, who concluded the consent for the demolition and rebuild of Allianz was invalid.
Mr Daley, who has campaigned against the government's stadiums policy, sent the advice to four councils for them to decide whether to launch legal action. Woollahra Council also ruled out court action.