Let’s open Majara Street Bungendore and remove the ‘temporary’ fencing from our park - The Mick Sherd Oval.

An interesting update from 'Save Bungendore Park':

"If it was OK to keep Majara Street open between April 2022 and February 2023, why can’t it be re-opened now? 

Why does it need to stay fenced – with nothing happening – waiting for a new DA which may never come through? 

The DoE could justify taking down those fences for the sake of "optics". We'd suggest it's a lot more than that. It's a simple and very practical gesture of good will to our community which has suffered so much pain through this fiasco.

It just makes no sense to keep the fences up.

The Department of Education’s premature and completely unnecessary closure of Majara Street and fencing of the Park has been an ongoing source of pain in our community for over a year. 

So it was interesting to find internal DoE emails from way back in April 2022. This was just before the Department forcibly acquired the road, parts of our Park, our Common and our community facilities.

The Roads Act 1993 does not allow the closure of a road unless that road is “not reasonably required” and does not “provide continuity for an existing road network”. Obviously, neither of those criteria was satisfied, as we’ve seen with the disruption following the closure of Majara Street. 

That’s why the DoE had to find a legal loophole. 

It was ultimately able to do this by forcing the acquisition using compulsory powers. But even so, they could see that closing the road and the Park would be problematic. 

On 8 April 2022, the Department’s “Manager, Acquisitions and Divestments” wrote to colleagues advising that the acquisition would shortly be completed, but that “the SSDA for the new school is unlikely to be approved until late 2022.”

The Manager noted that they had two options:

“1. Fence up the parks and road in 2 weeks once transfer is complete.

2. Maintain the parks and road for the public as open space and a road.”

He continued:

“The project team is very reluctant to fence the site up in 2 weeks as there has been community concern about losing their parks and road and the optics of fencing these up for 6 or more months while not doing anything with the land does not help.”

There was some discussion about legalities and insurance, but obviously the DoE decided on Option 2, because the road stayed open and the Park stayed unfenced until February 2023 when – in a mad rush ahead of the NSW State Election – suddenly it was closed.

Over a year later – and to quote the Manager – “while not doing anything with the land” – the fences are still there. Now that the Secretary of the DoE has confirmed it will lodge a new DA, it’s going to be years before anything happens.

If it was OK to keep Majara Street open between April 2022 and February 2023, why can’t it be re-opened now? 

Why does it need to stay fenced – with nothing happening – waiting for a new DA which may never come through? 

The DoE could justify taking down those fences for the sake of "optics". We'd suggest it's a lot more than that. It's a simple and very practical gesture of good will to our community which has suffered so much pain through this fiasco.

It just makes no sense to keep the fences up."

We are facing having Majara St closed for the foreseeable future unless you stand up and do something about it… it’s not going to re-open unless you have your say- this is very clear!

The DOE declined a request to open the road on 29/9/2023 and the reasons they cited are:

1) it would present security issues- Majara St and the park have never had security issues before and I don’t understand what’s changed so there would be a security issue now - security issues on a road that’s not open and a park that’s fenced off to disrupt people from using it?

2) removing the temporary fence will impact enabling works in the area - there are no works in the area! In fact no works for a year and no works even look like happening 

As a resident of Bungendore, NSW, I am personally impacted and annoyed by the unnecessary closure of Majara Street. This road was closed due to plans for a new high school OVER a YEAR ago. The closure has caused great inconvenience to locals like myself who use this route daily.

Bungendore is a small town and the closure of a main thoroughfare is ridiculous . 

A busy part of Majara st has been sectioned off and The Mick Sherd Oval, in the heart of town, has been fenced off with temporary fencing and NSW government banners for over a year now and people are sick of the eye sore.

Why won’t the NSW government and DOE open it up?

It has greatly increased parking and traffic on adjacent streets that were never designed for it.

The disruption to those walking and cycling in this area is also a safety concern.

Bungendore residents are sick and tired of driving out of their homes around blockades and we are inconvenienced on a daily basis. 

The reopening of Majara Street is common sense and would restore convenience for all residents. We urge the NSW government and the DOE to reconsider this decision based on its impact on our community.

Please sign this petition if you believe  in reversing a dumb decision by the NSW government and let’s open Majara Street and remove the NSW government signs and temporary fencing from our park.