It was a close race with the final count being four C+R and four CV Board members. The failure of City Vision to retain a majority on the AlbertEden Local Board and the dumping of Board Chairman Peter Haynes is seen as a positive outcome for Save Chamberlain Park. The $30 million plan to reduce the 18-hole golf course to nine holes and use the extra land for artificial turf sporting facilities is  looking less likely.

Thanks to all our supporters who spent valuable time delivering pamphlets, donating money and assisting with our SCP campaign. We intend to keep the petition site going until Chamberlain is secured as a natural green space with an 18 hole people’s golf course. We would like to see that no future politician will be able to inflict their whimsical ideas resulting in destruction of such a valuable central city green space.

We now look forward to working with a new Local Board to constructively look at ways to improve access to the park without destroying what is there. The time has come to commit to keeping the full 18 holes at the “people’s golf course”, but it doesn’t mean more cannot be done to improve public access, build a walking/bike track and restore the environment by cleaning up Meola Creek and increase native plantings.

We call on council staff to immediately halt all work on the ‘business plan’ as there is no longer a mandate for the masterplan as championed by CityVision (winning an Albert Eden local board vote earlier this year 5 to 3; C&R have always opposed the masterplan). This would result in the immediate saving of $1,000,000 that had been earmarked for this process. Expressions of interest to manage the ‘business plan’ process closed last Friday.

We intend to present this petition that has more than 25,000 signatures (online and hard copy) to the new Local Board when it next meets. We look forward to being involved in the restoration of Meola Creek – we have said all along that this is an important project for the area. Our ultimate vision for Chamberlain Park is for it to be an environmentally sustainable inner-city recreational resource that supports golf and the natural wildlife, but also is available to the wider local community.