Pyrmont Community needs a place to continue its activities while the Pyrmont Community Centre is upgraded over the next 2 years. The venue must be properly accessible and adequately sized.

The cost of hiring an appropriate venue is a small amount compared with the overall budget spend of the City. You say Sydney is a city of villages, but Pyrmont and its large population, our village, needs more support than your Council is currently giving.

The community has found a venue, and is willing to make it ready for use for most activities. Pyrmont Cares has offered to move the furniture and equipment needed. Friends of the Pyrmont Community Centre can make the necessary applications and promote the space to the community. We estimate the cost at less than $150,000 a year, much less than Council staff have suggested.

A packed community meeting asked Council to

• lease a space in Pyrmont which can accommodate all the activities that will not fit into Maybanke, and 
• retain the Pyrmont staff – both in the main centre and in the children’s area - in this space. 

Council rejected these requests, although half the elected Councillors supported the motion.

Please reconsider these requests, to enable the Pyrmont community to continue to connect in a suitable venue, to reduce the loneliness and social isolation that many will otherwise experience.