Boronia Park Plan of Management adopted

MEDIA RELEASE

Hunter’s Hill Council has adopted a plan to guide the management, use and development of Boronia Park for the next 10 years.

Boronia Park offers a rare combination of natural bushland areas, managed parkland settings, and developed sports fields and facilities not found anywhere else in the Hunters Hill local government area.

The Boronia Park Plan of Management represents an exciting new chapter, which will focus on working collaboratively with the full range of stakeholders.

It follows 14 months of community consultation.

The plan of management was finalised at an extraordinary Council meeting tonight (Thursday April 30, 2020). Consideration of the plan of management and associated debate was continued from an ordinary meeting of Council held on Monday April 27.

Boronia Park is a district-level sport, recreation and nature reserve.

The plan of management makes provision for a new sport and community facility on the site, the location and design of which would be determined as part of a separate development application process.

The facility would be for use of the wider community including district sports clubs, nearby schools and other community groups.

Gladesville Ravens Sports Club President Cathy Inglis said the club supported the new facility at Boronia Park.

“It will provide our club with much needed storage for our netball gear and ensure our young netballers, who train for half the year on the courts, have access to bathrooms and change facilities right next to the courts,” she said.

“We would also love to be able to use the community room for our meetings.”

Ryde Hunters Hill Cricket Club President Ben Woods said, in a submission read to Monday night’s Council meeting, the existing facilities at Boronia Park were outdated, inadequate and didn’t appropriately cater for the thousands of users of the sports precinct.

“In very simple terms, there is a desperate need for modern facilities and social spaces to service, not only the sports clubs, but the broader community,” he said.

Hunters Hill Rugby Union Football Club President Glen Sanford said, in a submission read to Monday night’s Council meeting, the need for new facilities was critical.

“These spaces are not just for the sporting clubs, they are spaces for the entire community to share,” he said.

An all ages, all abilities playground proposed at the plan’s draft stage has been removed from the final document, due to opposition expressed by most respondents during a public exhibition period.

The focus will now be on maintaining two existing playgrounds in Boronia Park.

Consideration will also be given to a bike track, however not within an area of the park known as Finlay’s Paddock, in line with responses to the draft plan.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jacqui Jones, Communications Officer. Phone: (02) 9879 9400

Email: jonesj@huntershill.nsw.gov.au

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