February's NF1 Report

By NF1 convenor Warwick Erwin

Helensburgh Community Centre closed for 2022

Council has closed the Helensburgh Community Centre totally and cancelled all bookings for 2022, giving the reason as “to allow Council to carry out some essential investigations into underlying moisture and mould issues” in an email in late December and has confirmed the closure early 2022 in requesting the return of all keys.

It is over five years since Council closed off the back part of the hall in the community centre to “repair” the damaged floor and investigations then “claimed” the floor just had to be repaired. Locals know that the hall is built on two springs and construction of the Youth Centre at the front of the main building stopped the drainage of those springs and stopped the flow of air under the timber floor. Ventilation issues were cited as the problem at one time and the “solution” was the pipes around the main building to ventilate under the floor. The back part of the floor sank and further investigation limited the use of the hall.

Timber for the floor repair arrived 18 months ago and is still stored in the entry to the main building, making it a work area and so preventing residents from entering or using the main building. Now Council has also closed the front building.

The new Community Centre and Library will not be opened for five years, according to the schedule released by Council for that project.

The impact of not being able to use this facility affects community groups and those who hire the hall and rooms, as well as our great Library staff who are unable to carry out any of their planned workshops and activities.

Council’s project steering committee was due to meet in late January 2022, but further information is required to be able to arrive at an agreed way forward.

What can you do? Email the Lord Mayor and Ward 1 Councillors to ask why has it taken so long to fix this issue and ask to have the solution actioned immediately. The emails are: Gordon Bradbery, LordMayor@wollongong.nsw.gov.au; Cameron Walters, cr.CWalters@wollongong.nsw.gov.au; Janice Kershaw, cr.JKershaw@wollongong.nsw.gov.au; Mithra Cox, cr.MCox@wollongong.nsw.gov.au; Richard Martin, cr.rmartin@wollongong.nsw.gov.au. Also copy Council, records@wollongong.nsw.gov.au

Liquor Licence Application for corner of Walker and Short St by Coles Group

APP-0008817690: Status shows Under Assessment on ILGA noticeboard at time of writing.

Planning Proposal request for land located at Lot 10 DP 260258 and Lot 24 DP 260258, 20 Lawrence Hargrave Drive, Stanwell Tops. Also known as Wagon Wheels.

Council officers are now preparing a report to go to Council meeting for a decision.

DA-2021/1058 Lot 2 Short Lane, Helensburgh

This is the laneway next to Bear Trader. Council officers will now assess the DA. Previous DAs for this laneway have been refused. We wait.

UCI 2022 Road World Championship

Helensburgh will be the start of the road races for the weekend of 24 and 25 September 2022. Course details at wollongong2022.com.au

First meeting of NF1 in 2022

7pm on 9 February, but at time of writing we don’t know which venue Council will have available for NF1 to meet… Another interesting year ahead.