The debate over Peninsula Park in Wentworth Point is heating up, after Member for Auburn Lynda Voltz condemned the NSW Government over “broken promises”.
Presenting a Notice of Motion in the NSW Parliament recently, Ms Voltz has called out the NSW Government on the use of a proposed school oval with a 1.8m fence and no lighting, as part of the long-promised Peninsula Park.
Ms Voltz said residents were promised 3.9ha of open space in a public park by the NSW Government in 2013 with construction meant to be finished first by 2016, which was then delayed to 2018. Currently, the site remains fenced off.
In late 2020, the NSW Government announced that a portion of the development site would be allocated for the new Sydney Olympic Park High School to accommodate up to 1,500 students, along with more residential development. The new plans suggest a “significant reduction” in the overall size of the Peninsula Park.
Ms Voltz said the residents deserved answers on why they are victims of another broken infrastructure promise.
“For all of their crowing about infrastructure delivery, this NSW Liberal Government has simply ignored Wentworth Point and the Olympic Park peninsula,” she said.
“The local community has been waiting for Peninsula Park to be delivered for almost a decade, yet the NSW Liberal Government and the Member for Parramatta now want them to believe a school oval with a 1.8m fence around it, which will be closed to the public from 6am-6pm and has no lighting is ‘public open space’.”
Accusing the State Government of misleading the local community, Ms Voltz said they need to commit to building the park that was originally promised.
“They seem to have no problem approving more high density housing, but can only deliver a temporary ‘pop-up park’ in the next four years,” she said.
“The Member for Parramatta and his NSW Liberal Government need to stop misleading the community on what public open space they are delivering and just build the park they promised a decade ago.”
However, Member for Parramatta Geoff Lee has hit back over the claims.
“Lynda Voltz is actually trying to cover up for what she hasn’t done in the last four years, she’s been the local member and unable to deliver anything for people of Wentworth Point,” he said.
Dr Lee said that Landcom, the State Government’s developer, is set to start work on the next stage of the park in late September.
“The park is larger with the oval, larger than it was before, and we’ve done that by deleting the boat shed that was originally on the plans.We’re delivering an oval, which is shared between the school and the [local residents], this is a great result, this is what we’re doing in other schools,” he said.
Ellie Busby is a news reporter for Western Sydney Publishing Group. A graduate of the University of Hertfordshire and Western Sydney University, she is a journalism Major. Ellie has worked with Universal Media, The Cova Project and for a range of other organisations. In 2024, Ellie was named Young Writer of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.