PAVILION STAKEHOLDER COMMITTEE TO HAND POWER BACK TO THE PEOPLE

By Angira Bharadwaj on December 21, 2017 in News

Mayor Wakefield has hit the ground running, by James Hutton

It’s back to square one for Waverley Council’s controversial Bondi Pavilion refurbishment, with Mayor John Wakefield establishing a stakeholder committee to ask the local community what it actually wants. Council voted in support of this decision at its first meeting.
The committee will meet several times in the lead-up to Christmas to debate the required uses and functions of the Pavilion, which will form the basis of a report to be given to the architect.
“We have expressions of interest open for community members to apply to sit on the stakeholder committee,” Mayor Wakefield told The Beast.
The makeover plans have certainly ruffled a few feathers in the past, and the new mayor is determined to give a voice to the people who care the most about the future of the iconic structure.
Representatives from the Bondi Beach Precinct Group and Friends of Bondi Pavilion will be joined by community members with experience in the Pavilion’s areas of use, such as music and theatre.
The committee is designed to receive input from key stakeholders to ensure a balance between commercial interests and community use, something that the mayor said was missing in previous proposals.
“Our intention is to ensure that there is a level of viable commercial operation in that building,” Mayor Wakefield explained.
“Our opposition to the previous proposals was based on our belief that there always should have been a guarantee that commercial operations wouldn’t take over the building,” he said.
The taskforce, however, will not include commercial operators – they will be dealt with separately.
“The level of commercial activity in that building currently is pretty good; it’s roughly right.
“Its location on the ground floor, I believe, is the most desirable and viable for commercial activity,” he said.
The controversial project was a major point of contention in the community in the lead-up to the local council elections.
The Pavilion’s makeover is the first major project to be undertaken since the mayor took control of council from the Liberal’s Sally Betts in September.
With the council hoping to receive the stakeholder report by the end of the year, Mayor Wakefield is hoping to commence the refurbishment between July and September 2018.
“If it pushes into summer, we will have to consider what we do then. We don’t want to undertake a major refurbishment during summer,” he said.
The mayor has also set his sights on fixing Waverley’s parking woes and filling vacancies within the council.
“There are currently a large number of acting positions in Waverley Council due to the long merger process and the uncertainty surrounding it all.
“This is something that must be rectified. It is one of the most significant things that I’m doing. It doesn’t have an immediate impact, but it will have a longer-term impact on stability,” he said.