BACKGROUND: The Centennial Park Trust engaged consultants Sinclair Knight Merz to produce the The Centennial Parklands Transport, Access & Parking Plan. Pending apparent extensive community consultation, the draft plan was produced and was put on public exhibition on 1 July 2001. It was the opinion of Cycle Centennial that if the recommendations of the plan were implemented they would have had a devastating effect on training cyclists and would have exposed all users of the park to serious risk of injury and/or death.
To give you a very quick recap. Here are pictures of the proposed plan.
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Click on images for larger view |
It was the failure of the consultation process to not invite any representatives of the racing/training cyclists and triathletes that resulted in the birth of the organisation called Cycle Centennial. (None of the 70 cycling clubs affiliated with the NSW Cycling Federation nor any of their 4500 affiliated members nor any of the NSW Triathlon clubs and/or their thousands of cycling members were consulted).
The news quickly spread within the cycling community and several members of Sydney's Cycling clubs began to meet to discuss the issue. Cycle Centennial quickly came into existence.
After the Draft Plan went on public exhibition, Cycle Centennial was successful in coordinating the submission of over 50% of some 500 plus written submissions to the Centennial Park Trust in respect of the draft plan. A summary of these submissions produced by the consultant (SKM) revealed that the majority of the submissions were critical of the following aspects of the plan:
1. Pedestrian Crossings on Grand Drive
2. Contra-flow bike lane (recreational vehicles travelling towards motor vehicles)
3. Reduced Carriageway width (from proposed parrallel parking on outer perimeter)
4. Car door (from proposed parrallel parking on outer perimeter)
5. Debris on cycle/skate lane
6. Coloured pavement - slippery surface.
Cycle Centennial was invited by the Director of the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust, Mr Peter Duncan, to meet in a workshop environment and assist the Trust and the Consultants in the development of the final plan. The first such workshop meeting occurred on Wednesday 19 September 2001. Four delegates were selected to attend the workshop by Cycle Centennial, these being:
John Buckton President Randwick Botany Cycling Club
Fergus Neilson Member Eastern Suburbs Cycling Club
Sam Rueben Member Sydney Cycling Club
Robert Barnes Member St George Cycling Club
RESOURCES:
The entire plan can be studied at this site: http://www.cp.nsw.gov.au/research/consult.htm
Initial written responses
If you have any inquiries/questions that you would like to ask of Cycle Centennial, please address them to: cyclecentennial@hotmail.com and we will ensure that we respond to you.
