| News items prior to Nov '06 are not on the SOS Facebook page and can be found below instead:
Registration of the Save Our Suburbs Party - a remarkable and historic story
- Court Action by Save Our Suburbs
- We have won! We have won! "THE COURT ORDERS THE DEFENDANT TO EFFECT THE REGISTRATION OF THE PLAINTIFF"s
- Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Act Amendment Bill
- Registration of Save Our Suburbs - final victory
- The final page on our party registration victory
THE
BIRTH OF SAVE OUR SYDNEY SUBURBS
This is the
inaugural newsletter of Save our Sydney Suburbs.
On 9 March 1999 a
group of residents and councillors representing local community groups
from all over Sydney met at a Sydney hotel. There and then we resolved
to join together in the fight to save our suburbs from an orgy of over-development.
Five days later, on 14 March, SOSs was incorporated.
RALLY AT FIRST FLEET
PARK
Then on 21 March 1999,
with the State election looming, SOSs held its first public meeting at
First Fleet Park at Circular Quay. Speakers included:
- Genia McCaffery,
the Mayor of North Sydney Council,
- Maire Sheehan,
then an independent candidate for the NSW Upper House and currently
Mayor of Leichardt Council
- Stephen Davies,
The Deputy Director of the New South Wales Branch of the National Trust
- Helen Caldicott
- Peter King, President
of the Heritage Council
Speaker after speaker
denounced the destructive urban development policies pursued by successive
state governments and sounded warnings about the harm it was causing to
the suburbs of Sydney.
Then residents in
the audience had their say. Many told horror stories about the reality
of what development was doing to their streets and neighbourhoods. Others
expressed frustration that the laws were so stacked in favour of developers
that even if the residents in an area convinced the Council to refuse
an unwanted development, the developer would get its way in the Land &
Environment Court.
Local action groups
were well represented at the rally, including:
- The Burwood Community
Voice
- Shire Watch Independents
(Sutherland)
- Auburn
- Residents from
Girraween and Homebush residents
- Rockdale Ratepayers
association
- The Kuringai Preservation
Trust
The rally received
significant media coverage, featuring a full page in the Sydney Morning
Herald and a slot on the Channel Nine 6pm News.
SUPPORTING LOCAL
COMMUNITY GROUPS
Since that time, Save
Our Sydney Suburbs has given support to several actions and initiatives
of community groups, including:
- Attending the launch
of Shire Watch Independents
- Support of Kuringai
Preservation Trust
- Attending rallies
such as the one held by residents in Ocean Street Bondi to save their
open space.
There are plenty of
other good groups which we haven't had time to be directly involved with
yet but which we really want to support, such as:
- Residents fighting
the re-development of the ADI site at St Marys
- Residents fighting
to Save Manly Dam
- Homebush residents
fighting mass re-zoning
- Kuringai Residents
fighting to stave off State Government intervention under SEPP 53
- Residents of the
inner west, fighting higher density zoning
If you are in a local
action group fighting to save your area, we want to hear from you
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
ELECTIONS
Since the rally in
March, many of our key members and supporters have been working flat out
on the local elections. The results have been stunning. In fact it has
been widely acknowledged that the most striking feature of the local government
elections was the emergence all over Sydney of groups and canditates running
very stongly on protection of suburbs from over-development and the success
those groups acheived. Some examples of this include:
- Shire Watch Independents,
emerging as a party earlier this year, coming from nowhere to win a
third of the seats in Sutherland
- The Kuringai Preservation
Trust emerging in late 1998, to win 8 out of 10 seats in Kuringai
- Maire Sheehan being
re-elected as Mayor of Leichardt
- The landslide re-election
of Genia McAffery and her community-based team in North Sydney
SOSS Residents' Assembly
There has been a lot
of quiet work behind the scenes to put together a a good constitution
for SOSS and to put in place a structure which will make us truly representative
of Sydney's residents and a force to be reckoned with. The Structure of
SOSS includes a Residents Assembly, which will help determine policy and
which will elect the Executive. There is a seat available on the SOSS
Residents Assembly for one person from every local government area in
Sydney. For SOSS to become a really powerful force for residents, what
we need is for you, your family, your neighbours & friends to join us.
When all of the local government areas are represented on the SOSS Residents'
Assembly, we will be geared up to move ahead and force major changes to
State Government laws and policies. That is the only way to Save our Sydney
Suburbs.
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