FOCP takes a stand on Callan Park handover

Last Monday, October 12 the Friends of Callan Park met to discuss the negotiations between Leichhardt Council and the NSW State Labor Government regarding the handover of Callan Park.  At that meeting the follow resolution was passed.

Resolution carried at the Friends of Callan Park meeting, 12 October 2009

FOCP expresses its public support for Council to continue negotiating the Heads of Agreement for the handover of Callan Park. It believes Council should

1. Refuse to accept as a precondition the dangerous and unnecessary subdivision of the site.

2. Insist on respect for the boundaries promised by the minister for planning Kristina Keneally and Verity Firth MLA on October 22, 2008.

3. Require the state government to pay for urgent maintenance work.

4. Press for contributory funding for the master planning.

5. Seek guarantees on continuing funding for

a. heritage restoration of Broughton Hall and adjacent gardens, the convalescent cottages and the dairyman’s cottage,

b. any remediation of contamination on the site,

c. infrastucture maintenance and renewal - including the sea wall.

6. Send a letter to all residents in the municipality outlining the provisions of the proposed Heads of Agreement and the case for continued state government funding.

7. Draw the attention of both state and federal MPs to the potential for the renewal of mental health and drug and alcohol treatment facilities at Callan Park - especially if the desired outcome is reducing homelessness, the overcrowding of mental health facilities, the preventable deaths of people with a mental illness and the imprisonment of people with a mental illness.

Furthermore, the Friends resolve to letter-box a leaflet setting out its support for a handover without the dangerous, backsliding and unsatisfactory features of the present proposal.

Copies of this resolution to be forwarded to the Mayor, Verity Firth MLA, Anthony Albanese MHR, Tanya Plibersek MHR, Rob Stokes MLA and Barry O’Farrell, leader of the NSW opposition.