Fortress Tigers yet to come – WestConnex hot mess – Mighty 10 returns
• Leichhardt Mayor Darcy Byrne has written to Premier Mike Baird in order to request funding for a renewed Leichhardt Oval ‘Wests Tigers Centre of Excellence’. Leichhardt Council has applied for $17 million in funding out of the $40 million the State Government has made available to local rugby league grounds under their ‘Stadia Strategy.’ A day after the Stadia strategy was announced by the Government, Manly Warringah Sea Eagles CEO Joe Kelly announced that Baird had confirmed during a late-night phone call that Manly’s planned stadium upgrade fit the funds’ application criteria, securing a nifty $10 million of the available funding for “Fortress Brookie” (the Eagles’ Brookvale Stadium). In Byrne’s letter he asks Baird to, “urgently clarify the application process.” Baird’s electorate includes Manly.
•The news that the second stage of WestConnex has been approved despite 12,900 submissions that were nearly all opposed to the “new M5” tunnel, has led to calls for ‘civil disobedience’ from the Member for Newtown, Jenny Leong, and an investigative report compiled by Wendy Bacon on the lack of transparency in the WestConnex project. Bacon’s report is concerned with engineering company Arup performing ‘independent’ assessments for aspects of the projects, while also having been awarded contracts involved in the roads delivery. Haberfield made national news when two protestors were arrested for occupying a heritage Federation home slated for demolition.
• Newtown CD store Hum on King has left the building, as has the local newsagency. Hum was nominated as one of the ten best record stores in Sydney by the SMH, and was also the site of many local band album launch events, including Sticky Fingers’ Land of Pleasure signings. Newtownians seem cheered by the prospect of a Mitre 10 returning to the area, the previous Mitre 10 left in 2014 after being in business for over a century!
