Commercial Activity and large scale Group Fitness is destroying Harmony Park.

Harmony Park has become an attractive place for personal trainers and their clients, and while we believe that the park should support a variety of activity, a company called “Funktional Community” are operating a large scale commercial business within Harmony Park and actively promoting the park as their as their own personal premises on their Facebook page and other marketing material.

I’d like to raise the following concerns in relation to this;

• Damage to the decking from training equipment
• Ringbarking and broken branches on the Jacaranda Tree from hanging equipment
• Loud music, thumping of equipment on the decking and shouting starting at 6am

Further to the issues raised above, residents and other members of the public are unable to enjoy the decking area due the large groups of approximately 15 - 20 people taking it over with large equipment such as rowing machines and excercyles, up to 3x a day - Early morning, lunchtime and evenings.

The owner of Funktional Community, Evaldo Roshan, has been approached by residents previously but he has shown no respect or consideration towards our concerns, and has verbally abused residents who have approached him.

Only recently, 2 residents were sitting on the decking area under the Jacaranda Tree when Evaldo arrived and started setting up equipment all around them, with no consideration. The residents were forced to move away or be trampled by his large group and their equipment.

Commercial activities within Harmony Park are prohibited, unless approved by council. And from our enquiries Funktional Community do not have approval to run a commercial operation from Harmony Park.

If you’re not already familiar with the size of the group fitness sessions taking place in Harmony Park, you can view images of these sessions on Funktional Communities Facebook page and website…

www.facebook.com/FunktionalCommunity​

www.funktionalcommunity.com

The park is big enough to accommodate small scale fitness activities, but the close proximity of the decking to apartments, along with the hard surfaces of the decking and buildings immediately opposite this area, amplifies the noise and music from fitness groups... This is particularly an issue between 6 and 7am, when many residents are still sleeping.

We believe the scale and size of fitness groups should be limited, and training in certain areas of the park which are bordering residential units should be banned - Especially where damage is occurring.

We’d like to hear from anyone that has been affected by noise from the group training in harmony Park, is concerned about the damage occurring because of it, or may have been prevented from using the park, or forced away by training groups.

Until this issue is resolved, any immediate complaints can be registered directly with The City of Sydney on Ph. 9265 9333, however nothing will change unless we get together as a community to address the problem.

If you'd like to join the action group, please email us your contact details...

harmonypark@outlook.com.au

Thank you for your support,

Friends of Harmony Park.