Chants of “ICAC” rang out from Ku-ring-gai Council Chambers on Monday evening, as councillors pushed through a synthetic solution for the troubled Norman Griffiths Oval development.
What happened: In May 2025, Ku-ring-gai Council terminated a multi-million dollar contract for the redevelopment of Norman Griffiths Oval in Pymble. Since then, the oval has sat as a wet pit of gravel, fenced off and unusable.
Caught between a legal battle with the former contractor, an outraged football club and numerous reports into what went wrong, the council found itself divided and has struggled to determine a way forward.
New leadership: But with a new mayor elected last week, councillors in favour of pushing ahead with synthetic turf held a majority of votes. On Monday evening, a majority of councillors voted to lay fake grass at the pitch, approving the project’s ninth budget increase, to $24.4 million.
Not all thrilled: This decision — along with the mayor’s refusal to host a public forum prior to the meeting — drew the ire of many residents. Outside, prior to the meeting, a faux public forum was held by disgruntled members of the public. Some appeared before the council chambers with tape covering their mouths.
Once the meeting began, over a hundred members of the public crowded the council chambers.
Mayor Wheatley threatened to remove members for their conduct, and at one point all microphones were muted as the chamber erupted into cries of “shame”.
A synthetic future: In May, council voted to send the Norman Griffiths Oval project to the state government for review. A report was returned by NSW Public Works detailing the costs and benefits of natural and synthetic turf.
Natural turf was priced at an overall budget of $24.2 million, while synthetic would be $24.4 million. The bigger differences regarded playtime and environmental impacts.
The report estimated the field would likely see over 60 hours of use from sports teams a week. It said while a high standard natural turf field could typically support around 20 – 25 hours of play, a synthetic pitch can accommodate 60 – 80 hours per week.
However, the report also states that intensive use of a synthetic turf field would accelerate wear and tear, shortening the effective lifespan of the pitch. Those opposed to fake grass at Norman Griffiths point to the considerable amount of synthetic turf fibres found in Sydney waterways.
Recent studies from the NSW Environment Protection Authority found 16.67 percent of microplastics found in the Lane Cove River were from artificial turf, against the state average of 5.5 percent.