President’s comment. Latest update on the Northwest Rapid Transit Services Facility at Cheltenham Oval
I was invited to a preliminary meeting between the Northwest Rapid
Transit (NRT) staff and Hornsby Council’s nursery staff two weeks ago.
The subject was the reinstatement of the original bushland once the
service facility is constructed and the Kirkham Street haulage access
way is no longer required. The reinstatement of the bushland
between Kirkham Street and the service facility is consistent with the
State Government planning approval for the NRT project. As you can
guess the discussion centred around a local species list, density of
planting the tube stock, appropriately qualified contractors and
expected time frame. It was a productive meeting and good to see
the key stakeholders working together. The bushland reinstatement is not
expected to commence till early 2019.
I was invited to attend the meeting because I am a volunteer bush
regenerator in Beecroft and Cheltenham. But I was able to use my
position as President of the Trust as well. I was able to remind
the project officers we didn’t want a repeat of the poor regeneration
works carried out by inappropriate contractors when the M2 viaduct was
widened, and the consequently expensive corrective works that are
currently underway. It comes back to proper project management and
supervision. The bushland reinstatement activity will take time to
complete and I want the process to work well. As a volunteer bush
regenerator I don’t want to be spending my spare time correcting a
poorly implemented bush restoration project. I propose to brief Mayor
Philip Ruddock so that the Council, and hence the community, achieves
maximum long term value out of the project.
By the way you will notice the project has a new name , Northwest Rapid
Transit (NRT). We must move with the times apparently. So forget
North West Rail or The Metro or what else it has been called, it’s NRT.
Beecroft Place. Local
residents will now be aware that the lower retail section of the new
Beecroft Place shopping centre opened on the 20th September. photo courtesy of Landream’s retail manager. After
two years of construction we now have a larger supermarket and
associated shops again, plus a larger car park. The new underground car
park should take the pressure off the other existing car parks during
peak times. The shops on the upper ‘podium’ level are expected to
be open by the end of November in anticipation of the Christmas season.
There will be a number of food outlets facing the central open-air
courtyard. The occupation of the home units above will be
staggered with the first 76 occupiers moving in next week. In
discussions with the management, close to 70% of the residents are
owner-occupiers, including many down-sizers. Many residents were
initially concerned that the units would be used as student
accommodation, so the high percentage of owner occupiers is good news.
The Trust encourages you to patronise our local shopping centre and make
it into the boutique centre it once was. It’s good to see so many of
the shops promoting the Bag Free Beecroft campaign. It is
definitely working but please, regarding the free hand made shopping
bags, return them for others to use.
The enthusiastic team of about 20 plus women are not a charity. They
have performed a superb job of making these beautiful,
professionally-made shopping bags and deserve your respect by returning
them. So please support your local community.
Finally , for two very long years we have had to drive and suffer
traffic jams to go elsewhere to do the bulk of our weekly
shopping. Now we have no excuse; we can expect our shopping
behaviour will now change for the better; back to the “good old
days” with more shoppers walking to our local shops with their
reusable bags, more frequent trips walking to the shops, spending time
in the cafes and socialising in our own local shopping village again.
If you have not done so, make sure you check out the beautiful artwork
from the students at Beecroft Primary School. These were entered into
the NSW and ACT Threatened Species Art Competition. The students and
teachers should be congratulated for their wonderful entries and for
making the next generation aware of the need to protect our native flora
and fauna.
A quote from a local resident: "For
a small community that has had nothing I believe (Beecroft Place) is
brilliant. Just heard a lot of complaining from many sources about
how it is not as good as the full sized centres. Would hate to lose it
or have it dumbed down further due to it being under utilised. It is a
healthier community that walks to their local, rather than get in the
car and contribute to our congested roads. A car free Beecroft is just
as important as a bag free Beecroft!"
Breaking News: A rumor has come to our attention that suggests the Carligford Woolworths will follow Beecroft's lead and go "Bag Free" in January 2017.
Before During After
The money held by council from the sale of the former
Congregational church at Cheltenham Church funds.
Since the Council elections there has been a some talk about the future
use of the remaining $2.2 million from the sale of the former church on
Beecroft Road at Cheltenham. Council resolved that the funds would
be spent to benefit the residents of Beecroft and Cheltenham. In
December last year our former Council resolved to allocate about $0.6
million of the funds towards re-landscaping Beecroft Park, located next
to the train station. The Trust wants to progress the matter of how to
spend the rest of the funds and we suspect Council will want to do the
same. Once our Councillors settle into their roles, the Trust will be
contacting Council seeking meaningful dialogue regarding honouring the
wishes of the local community.
Annual Spring Lunch 2017 for seniors and retirees 19th October Rotary Club of Beecroft invites you to join them for lunch and a fun, relaxing afternoon (everyone welcome).
Come and sing-a-long to old favourites with the talented local quartet SaM.
Thursday 19th October 2017 11.30 am to 2.00 pm at the Pennant Hills Golf Club, Copeland Road Beecroft. $15 per person.
Tickets from Sparks Shoes 9 Wongala Crescent Beecroft .
Entry by pre-purchased tickets only. (Sorry no tickets will be sold at the door on the day)
Enquiries - call or text 0478 110 943
Beecroft Forum Dinner 2nd November The Beecroft Forum Dinner will be held on Thursday 2nd
November 2017 at the usual time of 7.00pm and at the usual place,
Pennant Hills Golf Club, Copeland Road, Beecroft. A donation of
$50 per adult would be appreciated. The guest speaker is
Mark Scott AO, Secretary of the NSW Department of Education, with
oversight for 2,200 schools with 49,000 teachers and 800,000
students. The title of Mark’s talk is “Education for an uncertain world”. Bookings are essential. Please book early. Please advise bookings to Janet Hayes (Ph 9980 9917) or email beecroftforum@bigpond.com
Trust Spring Walk. “We
always strive to make the walks interesting, so for this Spring Walk we
are venturing further afield into the wilds of Cherrybrook
The location will be Trevors Lane off Purchase Rd. The date is Sunday 29th October from 2pm till 4 pm. It’s an easy 90 minute walk with some interesting rock formations.
Beecroft Presbyterian Church Fete
8am-2pm - Saturday, 4th November, 2017. Lots
of fun for all the family with a jumping castle, children's games, face
painting, huge white elephant, Arts and Crafts, collectables stall,
secondhand toy stall, plant stalls, cakes and jam stall, international
food stall, delicious fresh warm scones and tea as well as our famous
sausage sizzle!
Donations of good quality furniture and household goods are most welcome
before the fete. Please contact Pam, our White Elephant
coordinator, Ph. 96342670 for collection of goods. No books
please.
Trust Membership Subscriptions and eNews...
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The
eNews has become our main method for disseminating information to the
community. Currently we have over 1020 email addresses, up from 900 two
months ago. We encourage residents who receive the eNews to tell
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At this stage, the Trust will continue to distribute the printed bulletin as not everyone uses the internet. We
are continuing to looking for volunteers who like walking and who may
be able to distribute approximately 100 Bulletins a couple of times per
year, as this is all done by kind members of our community. If you are
able to help out, even as an occasional fill in person, please contact trish@bcct2119.com.au.
The Trust has always had an unwritten policy to assist any resident regardless of their membership status.
