Eight weeks ago Swansea residents Tullie and Ryan Baxter opened their mailbox to discover some colourful leaflets tucked inside the bills.
They were council plans to construct a state-of-the-art skate park 200 metres from their front yard.
“No residents were consulted on this.
“And now they want to jam it through council before the election,” Mr Baxter said.
The Pelican Street residents, who have two daughters of their own, acknowledge that the Swansea/Blacksmiths district is in need of a skate park.
“Kids need skate parks, just not in this area.”
The residents have made a list of likely complications with the site – including flooding, lack of parking, lack of toilets, and the close proximity to a children’s playground, the soccer ovals and residencies.
But council claims it had previously notified the public through newspaper advertisements and letterbox drops, and has consulted with many stakeholders, including former state MP Milton Orkopoulos, Swansea Chamber of Commerce, NSW Police Lake Macquarie command community safety officer, the Eastlakes Youth Centre and the Chapman Oval board.
Eastlakes Youth Centre coordinator Steve Marshall says the centre has been in consultation with council for more than six years.
He says Chapman Oval was the perfect choice, being ‘only a two or three-minute skate from the main street’.
“It was mainly because of the space, but also because it won’t impact residents – it’s already a sports ground.”
Early in 2002, council and the stakeholders identified 25 possible sites, with four short listed in May – Strathmore Road at Caves Beach, Byrnes Reserve at Blacksmiths, Quinn Park at Swansea and Chapman Oval, Swansea.
In September 2002 Chapman Oval was proposed as the preferred site.
By 2003, documents showing the adopted plan were made public, with the appendix of the document showing the prosed skate park to be around a quarter of the size of the adjacent soccer oval.
But five years later and with a bigger budget, the skate park has outgrown the length of the soccer field and then some.
A spokesperson for council says the current proposal was adopted through the 2007 Masterplan initiative.
Also marked in the 2007 document, but now lodged as a separate development application, is the closure of Channel Street at either end of the park.
Locals, who live a mere 100 metres from the site, are worried the closure of the street will not allow for casual surveillance of the skate park.
Forbes Street resident Ruth Wilcox has been living on the street since 1984 and says the latest plans, which include a 1.5 metre half-pipe, more than 45 metres of banked ledges and skate rails, will attract anti-social behaviour to the area.
She and other residents attended a meeting with Mayor Greg Piper on Monday, August 4 and also raised concerns with regards to environmental factors (such as flooding and garbage), parking, change room facilities and the size of the skate park.
She also points out there are no first-aid facilities or phone booths in the park, and if Channel Street were to close, an ambulance would have no access to the skate park.
Mrs Baxter also attended the meeting with the mayor and pointed out that Swansea Police Station is only manned until 4pm.
“If they are going to have a skate park it needs to be supervised. There are no police.”
Council has confirmed the development is planned in three stages – firstly the soccer grounds will be raised and returfed, then the skate park will be built, and finally the accompanying amenities will be built.
Swansea Soccer Club president Howard Sanders says the majority of the members feel as though they are in a catch-22 situation – if the skate park is approved, the soccer grounds and amenities will be upgraded, but if the plan is put on hold, the club will suffer and have to wait another season or longer for their long-overdue upgrade.
The club is also concerned with the lack of parking, estimating that around 250 cars come to the grounds on a match day.
“We are not opposed to a skate park – we do think there is a place for it.”
“But what they are doing…it will take away 110 car parks.
“It’s going to attract a lot of problems.”
Only weeks ago council asked for public submissions to adopt the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change’s projected sea levels – that it will rise by up to 0.91 of a metre by 2100.
If this prediction were to unfold, the suburb of Swansea would be swallowed by water.
Lake Macquarie City Council manager of community planning John Ferguson says currently the slopes of the field are ‘terrible’, and will need to be upgraded.
But Mr Ferguson says the skate park proposal reflects the current consensus of the area.
“One of the things we look at council is the expectations of the community, and weigh up what they want now.”
He says modern day skate parks have a life expectancy of around 30 to 40 years, but many outlive that time frame.
At Monday night’s council meeting over 100 residents crammed into council chambers to discuss the park.
Councillor Kay Fraser said it was a heavily attended meeting, with public support both for and against the park.
“It was good to see a lot of kids here involved in the process and having their say.”
Council recommended a site inspection be held this Thursday at 4pm at Chapman Oval to discuss resident’s concerns.
The proposal will go to council again on Monday, August 11, and will most likely be given the green light.
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