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Friday August 28, 2026 
28 August 2026
The NSW Government is considering retaining Kelly’s Place Children’s Centre within an expanded Hume Street Park, despite North Sydney Council resolving to end the community-run centre’s lease in December.
Planning and public spaces minister Paul Scully told Budget Estimates on Monday that one of the concept designs being prepared by the government would incorporate the existing childcare building.
He also confirmed construction would not begin before the March 2027 state election.
The comments appear to leave open a path for the centre to survive on its Crows Nest site, even though Council maintains that retaining it would prevent delivery of the next stage of the park expansion.
Council voted in June not to extend Kelly’s Place’s lease beyond December 31 and not to retain the building. Its project material says the land is required to create about 2,000 square metres of additional public open space and that incorporating a childcare centre would substantially reduce the park area.
However, the state government is funding, designing and delivering the $9.3 million project. Draft concepts are due to be prepared in August and September, followed by community consultation late this year and completion of the final design in early 2027.
The minister’s comments raise questions about why the centre must vacate the site before the design process is completed and before the community has been consulted on the competing concepts.
Kelly’s Place has now written an open letter to Scully, mayor Zoe Baker and North Sydney councillors asking them to extend the lease while an integrated design is assessed.
“This should not be a choice between open space and community childcare,” the centre’s management committee said. “Strategic infrastructure planning demands both. Growing communities require both.”
Kelly’s Place has operated for almost four decades, provides 45 childcare places and employs between 16 and 18 educators and other staff.
The centre argues its closure would also depart from more than a decade of Council planning, which previously contemplated its relocation, replacement or integration into the park rather than the loss of the service.
In March 2025, Council unanimously resolved to continue working towards its preferred 2015 park design and to facilitate the centre’s relocation. The 2015 design included both new open space and a childcare centre at ground level.
Kelly’s Place has also released its own analysis of 492 submissions made during Council’s recent consultation on the park expansion. The underlying submissions were obtained under freedom of information laws, while Council has not yet published its consultation report.
The centre’s analysis found 402 submissions supported retaining Kelly’s Place, 19 supported proceeding without it and 71 did not express a view on the centre.
Among the 421 submissions which took a position, 95.5% favoured retention. Almost four in five supporting submissions called for the centre to be integrated into the expanded park.
The report acknowledges the consultation was not a representative survey and respondents were self-selecting, but says the result demonstrates the strength and direction of community concern.
Council says Crows Nest and St Leonards has just 3.87 square metres of open space per resident, the lowest level in the North Sydney local government area, and this will fall to 2.85 square metres by 2036 without additional parkland.
It says no suitable alternative site has been secured despite years of investigation and lease extensions, and there is no identified funding for a replacement childcare facility within the park.
Kelly’s Place has asked the government to design and cost an integrated option before approving any plan requiring its demolition. If retaining the existing building proves unworkable, it wants a funded replacement secured before it is required to leave.
“Deliver the park. Deliver the childcare. Deliver the plan,” the centre said.