Monday, February 10, 2025

Hornsby council rallies community over call to repay $36m grant

Hornsby Shire Mayor, Philip Ruddock, has called on local residents to voice their disappointment with the NSW Government’s “inexplicable decision” to rescind funding for the development of the Westleigh Park recreational facility.

At a General Meeting of Council held last night, the Council heard from speakers representing an array of local stakeholders groups, who relayed the community’s anger and disappointment at the Government’s decision to demand Council repay $36m of a $40m Stronger Communities Grant.

Mayor Ruddock addressed Councillors and residents, encouraging the community to voice their disappointment. He urged people to remind the NSW Premier and relevant ministers of the many local teams, athletes, clubs and generations of weekend sports players “who will see their community and aspirations suffer a loss as a result of the broken promise”.

The Stronger Communities Grant program was established in 2017 to support council amalgamations. Under the former government, 96% of the grants were awarded to Coalition electorates, a move later described by the NSW Auditor General as “deficient” and “lacking integrity”.

“As part of this fund, in 2018, the former government awarded a $40 million grant in Round 2 of the Stronger Communities Fund for Hornsby Shire Council’s Westleigh Park project,” said Local Government Minister, Ron Hoenig.

He pointed out that the amalgamation-focused funding was also pledged to councils that never actually merged, like Hornsby Shire Council.

“Since then, there have been significant delays in the delivery of the project and limited progress has been demonstrated, with most of the grant money yet to be spent,” said the Minister.

“The NSW Government has therefore refused a request from Hornsby Council for an extension of time to utilise the unspent funds.”

Mayor Ruddock said the Minister’s view failed to acknowledge the annexation of a portion of Hornsby Shire’s southern territory to the City of Parramatta LGA in 2016 — “a move by the then NSW Government that impacted its budget to the tune of $10m (net) annually in ratepayer revenue for Hornsby Shire and was the catalyst for the Westleigh Park development’s grant funding as compensation”.

The Mayor also hit back at the Minister’s claim of “limited progress” on the Westleigh Park project.

“Council has always maintained the original timeline was arbitrary and unrealistic for a project of such large scale and complexity as communicated to the NSW Government from the outset,” he said.

“The project has made substantial progress, with a masterplan and plan of management adopted, detailed plans prepared, and construction due to commence later this year (subject to DA approval).

“I will not apologise that we have worked tirelessly on a sensitive and important site to get the balance right for our community,” said Mayor Ruddock, adding that Council has been regularly informing the state government of its progress on the project.

“Work has been underway on Westleigh Park for over five years, with millions of dollars already outlaid, contracts signed, and thousands of hours devoted to providing our residents with these vital facilities”.

He said the funding backflip also comes less than six months after the publication of a report by the Northern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (NSROC) that found an alarming shortfall in the supply of sporting facilities in not only the Hornsby Shire LGA but the entire NSROC area – an issue that Mayor Ruddock says has only been exacerbated by recently inflated housing targets for Local Councils.

“We have cooperated with the NSW Government on their recently announced housing targets, agreeing to deliver additional housing above the 4,900 already planned for in our Hornsby Town Centre Masterplan.”

“To learn that these new residents will no longer have access to the infrastructure they were promised is incredibly disappointing,” said Mayor Ruddock.

Latest Articles