29 September 2023
By James Mullan
Users of the Police Citizens Youth Club in North Sydney converged on a town hall meeting at the Falcon St venue last night to protest the sale of the club building. But management of the PCYC charity told attendees that the transaction was a fait accompli.
About 100 people attended the meeting last night where they had an opportunity to question PCYC management including interim CEO Craig Becroft, GM people and culture Kellie Lavecombe, GM brand and philanthropy Simon Gerathy and youth command superintendent Sam Crisafulli.
Attendees at the meeting told the Sun that PCYC management admitted that their board had already resolved to sell the club, although there was no confirmation of rumours that the State Government was buying the property – about two house blocks in size – to build an ambulance station.
The North Sydney PCYC club has been in operation since 1957 and offers gym, boxing and martial arts classes as well as driver learning and even blue light discos. According to one correspondent, there have been intimations that the club is no longer generating a positive cash flow. But the most recent accounts for the PCYC movement as a whole – for calendar year 2021 – indicate that the entity made a $11.74m surplus on assets of $110.22m.
According to our sources, attendees at the meeting were unhappy that there had been no consultation on the decision.
One said: “You talk about your there for the community, you’re there for members, yet we are hearing second hand that decisions have already been made. The process, stakeholder engagement, you need to listen to the community, you need to listen to members, you need to do proper analysis. This is a big decision for the community but also for yourselves.”
Another member in attendance pointed out the fact both the Dee Why and Hornsby PCYCs had recently been given totally new facilities. The Hornsby club was rebuilt for a $12.5 millioncost with the local Shire Council contributing almost $3 million, while the new Dee Why centre cost $26 million, most of which came from the local council. PCYC management said they were different cases because those clubs were owned by council.
One attendee later told the Sun: “They are not actually telling us what’s truly going on which is that there is a very big pay day which is to occur from the sale of this building – with no clarity to what that money will be used for other than saying the money will be going back to PCYC with no certainty or understanding whether there will be a form of replacement in our local area. Nobody was willing to be straight with no confirmation or clarity on the sale of the site.”
Another said: “We’d like to know firstly why it’s being sold, we don’t know whether it’s social or economic. As far as we are concerned we hold up all the missions of looking after the youth in the area. We are a profitable club. So the social and economic factors seem to be there, yet they are deciding to close us; a profitable club, obviously to pay off debt somewhere else.”
North Sydney Mayor Zoe Baker was in attendance and clarified that the council had not been approached or consulted by PCYC about the sale.
CEO Becroft agreed to make a representation to the board on behalf of PCYC North Sydney asking if there was any way the club could be saved.
The NSW government had previously indicated plans to build a new ambulance station for the lower North Shore area in Cremorne.