The battle over plastic grass at Callan Park has figured large in the current Council election campaign in the Balmain/Baladurri Ward of the Inner West Council. The chief proponent for two (at least) plastic grass fields in Callan Park is the current mayor Darcy Byrne (Labor) who also happens to be one of the Councillors for Balmain/Baladurri Ward.
In contrast to Labor’s opposition to plastic grass elsewhere in Sydney, the mayor is solidly supported by the phalanx of Labor Councillors currently on IWC (they have 8 of the 15 Councillors on the outgoing Council).
Whether IWC proceeds to install two plastic grass playing fields in Callan Park will be decided by the new Council elected on 14 September. At its August meeting the outgoing Council voted 8-7 (8 Labor to 7 Greens and Independents) to instruct the staff to bring back a report on the design and cost of the fields to the new Council’s first meeting in October.
This timeline has made plastic grass an election issue on the Balmain peninsula where Callan Park is located.
The Friends of Callan Park have letterboxed the entire Ward twice and are calling for a vote for Greens and Independent candidates, all of whom have stated their opposition to the plastic grass fields. The Liberal candidate has equivocated and is yet to take a position for or against.
They Greens and Independent candidates are all also in support of investing in the better design and management of natural turf fields – to the benefit of everyone.
What both sides are counting on
Labor is relying on the vote of parents of football-playing children to swing the vote their way. Labor is being solidly backed by the organisers of Balmain District Football Club (BDFC), however anecdotal evidence is that many parents are worried by the serious environmental and health downsides of plastic turf. Supporters of cricket and dog-walking are also opposed because such fields would exclude them. Cricket has been played on these ovals for more than a century. (Don Bradman, for instance, played a charity match here in January 1932 – urban legend has it that a patient bowled him out.)
IWC Labor and BDFC organised a petition in favour of the fields but, after an intense campaign over at least two months, garnered only 1500 signatures despite claims to have thousands of supporters. The Friends have detected a quiet groundswell of support for the opposition to the plastic grass fields. The issue is certainly divisive and people are reluctant to get involved on either side.
Friends and other opponents have raised the environmental and health dangers of these fields. The financial issue has not been raised. Yet the resurfacing of these fields will cost approximately $2 million each within 10 years (based on the cost of resurfacing Lambert Park this year). That works out at $4,000 per week for each field in replacement costs alone.
Whether these fields get built in the heritage-listed Callan Park will initially be decided by the new Council. However, Greater Sydney Parklands (GSP) will also have to give it the green light as it manages Callan Park. GSP is currently developing a Plan of Management for Callan Park and it will have to decide whether such fields belong in this historic landscape.
The Heritage Council may also be required to approve such a development. A decade ago the Heritage Council stepped in to veto an over-large skate-park and exhibition development in Callan Park because it fell within the curtilage of Kirkbride, the original suite of 19th century sandstone asylum buildings on the site.
We are definitely in a watch-this-space moment at Callan Park.
