20°C |
Tuesday October 13, 2026 
12 October 2026
EVENING UPDATE:
North Sydney Council has voted down a fresh bid to extend Kelly’s Place Children’s Centre’s lease, then backed mayor Zoë Baker’s plan to challenge the NSW Government over threatened funding for the Hume Street Park expansion.
The rescission motion was defeated at the 12 October meeting, leaving the Crows Nest centre’s lease due to expire on 31 December 2026.
Council subsequently passed Baker’s mayoral minute authorising pre-demolition investigations of the building, a report on alternative funding for the park and an appeal to Premier Chris Minns to honour the government’s $9.3 million commitment.
The decisions followed appeals from parents and educators to preserve the community-run centre, and a heated debate over whether planning minister Paul Scully’s intervention justified revisiting Council’s June decision.
Councillors Efi Carr, Jessica Keen and James Spenceley lodged the rescission motion, seeking a 12-month lease extension to December 2027 while Council, Kelly’s Place and the state government explored relocation or integration into the expanded park.
They cited Scully’s advice that construction-associated works would not proceed until after March 2027, that state funding could not pay for demolition of the childcare building, and that a concept design would include an option combining childcare with public open space.
The motion also pointed to the park consultation’s 492 submissions, of which 81.7% supported retaining Kelly’s Place.
Spenceley urged councillors to allow time to investigate a design accommodating both uses.
“If we can’t find a design that encompasses both, I’ll be the first to vote for open space,” he said.
He argued that the population growth driving demand for a park would also increase demand for childcare, and warned against committing ratepayers’ money to demolition before alternatives had been examined.
Keen said an extension would give families and staff time to work through a transition.
“We need to extend the lease and give Kelly’s Place a chance to transition, whatever that looks like, whether it’s incorporated into the design or relocation,” she said.
Councillor Angus Hoy also supported rescission, saying the minister’s correspondence provided new information and the park’s design remained unresolved.
“I want Kelly’s Place to continue operating in some form, whether at their current location or somewhere else,” he said.
Councillor Chris Holding rejected suggestions that Council was rushing its decision, saying the issue had been debated six times during the current term.
“Nothing has materially changed,” he said. “We have every right to have made this decision for green and open space for the people of Crows Nest.”
Councillor MaryAnn Beregi also opposed rescission, arguing that the shortage of open space required Council to proceed.
Council escalates funding dispute
With the lease reprieve defeated, Baker urged Council to defend the park funding agreement executed with the NSW Government in April.
Scully has warned he could cancel the project and redirect its funding if dissatisfied with Council’s efforts to assist Kelly’s Place’s transition.
Baker said that placed inappropriate pressure on elected councillors and raised concerns for other communities expected to accommodate housing growth under the government’s transport-oriented development program.
She told the meeting that Crows Nest and St Leonards had just 3.42 square metres of open space per person in 2024, projected to fall to 2.85 square metres by 2036 without intervention. The precinct’s population was expected to reach approximately 29,500.
The mayor also questioned whether retaining the centre on Council land at $1 annual rent, with no contribution towards building maintenance, provided an equitable allocation of public resources.
The adopted minute authorises detailed hazardous materials investigations, including a pre-demolition survey and estimates of removal and remediation costs. It also requires a report on alternative funding if the state contribution is withdrawn, reduced or redirected.
Council will write to Minns seeking assurances that the government will honour the agreement, and alert other councils with accelerated development precincts to the funding dispute.
Hoy supported the mayoral minute despite backing the lease extension.
“The threats and influence being imposed on this council by the state government through the correspondence of the planning minister is entirely inappropriate and should be resisted,” he said.
“I think Kelly’s Place should get an extension to allow them to continue operating past the end of the year, not because the state government is seeking to coerce that outcome, because I think it is the right decision.”
Relocation claims disputed
The debate also exposed continuing disagreement over earlier relocation discussions.
Councillor Godfrey Santer argued that Kelly’s Place had rejected suitable alternatives, including a Forsyth Park proposal in 2021. He suggested Montessori children were now using the facility the centre had declined.
Keen challenged that account, saying Montessori had operated at Forsyth Park since at least 2004.
Council’s chief executive clarified that the building discussed with Kelly’s Place was separate from the Montessori premises, and that staff had talked with the centre about new designs for a facility there.
Kelly’s Place’s management committee has previously disputed Council’s account of rejected relocation options.
During the public forum, one parent warned that the centre could be lost if its lease ended before a replacement site was secured.
“A 12-month extension won’t delay a park that hasn’t even yet been designed,” he said.
Other speakers backed Council’s existing position, arguing that the growing Crows Nest community needed the full site for public open space.
EARLIER: North Sydney mayor Zoë Baker has accused NSW planning minister Paul Scully of political interference and raised the possibility of legal action after he threatened to withdraw $9.3 million in funding for the Hume Street Park expansion unless Council does more to assist Kelly’s Place Children’s Centre.
In an extraordinary escalation of the dispute over the Crows Nest childcare centre, Baker has written an eight-page letter to Scully describing his intervention as “overreach” and accusing him of attempting to pressure elected councillors into reversing a democratically determined decision.
The correspondence, published in the agenda for tonight’s North Sydney Council meeting, comes as three councillors prepare to move a rescission motion seeking to give Kelly’s Place another 12 months at its existing premises.
Baker has also proposed writing directly to Premier Chris Minns, seeking assurances that the NSW Government will honour its funding agreement and warning that the dispute sets a troubling precedent for other communities accommodating increased residential development.
The confrontation follows a letter from Scully dated 4 September, in which he warned that he would consider cancelling the Hume Street Park Stage 2 project and redirecting its funding unless satisfied Council was meeting its commitments to help Kelly’s Place transition.
“Your threat to deprive a growing community of essential public infrastructure by placing the preferences of approximately 40 families, many of whom neither live nor work in the North Sydney Local Government Area, ahead of the open space needs of thousands of current and future residents is extraordinary and, in my opinion, overreach,” Baker wrote.
She went further in questioning the minister’s conduct.
“In my opinion, it amounts to conduct that seeks to adversely affect the impartial exercise of official functions by a body of public officials, being North Sydney councillors,” she wrote.
“Essential infrastructure funding should not be used to pressure councillors to revisit a decision they have repeatedly considered, explained and reaffirmed through public democratic processes.”
Legal questions over funding agreement
Baker has challenged Scully to identify the contractual authority allowing the government to withdraw the $9.3 million committed to Stage 2 of the park.
Council entered into what the mayor describes as an enforceable agreement with the NSW Government in April 2026 to deliver the additional open space.
Scully has also insisted that none of the funding can be used to demolish the existing Kelly’s Place building, with Council required to meet those costs itself.
Baker questions the legal basis for that restriction and the proposed cancellation of funding.
“Council reserves its rights under the agreement and at law, including in relation to additional costs, delays or losses arising from any failure to meet those obligations,” she wrote.
She argues that the government’s approach undermines its commitments to provide supporting infrastructure alongside accelerated housing development in transport-oriented development precincts.
Since July 2024, development applications covering 3,617 new dwellings have been approved across North Sydney, most within the Crows Nest accelerated development precinct.
The mayor says the Crows Nest and St Leonards area has just 3.42 square metres of open space per resident, with that figure projected to fall to 2.85 square metres by 2036 without further intervention.
The proposed Stage 2 expansion would provide at least 2,000 square metres of additional public space.
“The NSW Government cannot reasonably expect councils and communities to accommodate accelerated housing growth while simultaneously threatening to withdraw funding for the very infrastructure necessary to make that growth sustainable and liveable,” Baker wrote in her mayoral minute.
Mayor questions lobbying campaign
Baker has also criticised the political influence of the campaign to retain Kelly’s Place, including representations by the federal member for Bennelong on behalf of families using the centre.
She argues that the needs of approximately 40 families should not outweigh the interests of a precinct expected to accommodate around 29,500 residents by 2036.
“What I find particularly extraordinary is the apparent influence that the lobbying of a relatively small group of stakeholders is having on the future of essential public infrastructure intended to serve thousands of current and future residents,” she wrote.
Baker’s letter also highlights that Kelly’s Place occupies its Council-owned premises for a nominal annual rent of $1 and makes no contribution towards building maintenance.
She describes this as a substantial public subsidy and argues that retaining the centre would deprive the wider community of valuable open space.
The existing building also requires an estimated $800,000 to $1 million to repair a failed waterproofing membrane.
The mayor maintains that Kelly’s Place has been aware for years that its lease would eventually expire, pointing to relocation discussions dating back to 2019 and successive one-year lease extensions.
She says Council remains willing to provide practical or financial assistance with relocation, but argues the centre has not supplied the information needed to develop a workable transition plan.
Kelly’s Place has challenged Council’s account of the relocation process. In an open letter dated 8 October, its management committee disputed suggestions it had rejected alternative premises and argued that earlier park plans had included provision for childcare to remain.
The centre has also pointed to a public consultation on the park in which 81.7% of 492 submissions supported retaining Kelly’s Place.
Centre director Katie Newton has argued that the park expansion and continued childcare provision can coexist.
“North Sydney Council can no longer present this issue as a choice between childcare and open space,” she said last week. “A compromise is on the table.”