Ku-ring-gai’s newly elected mayor has kicked her term off with controversy, declining to give the public a say before the fate of the catastrophic Norman Griffiths Oval project is determined tonight.
What happened: After years of cost blow-outs, independent reports and public outcry, Ku-ring-gai Council will vote this evening on the future for Norman Griffiths Oval. With Kim Wheatley appointed as mayor last week, a generally pro-synthetic turf coalition of councillors now holds the majority of votes.
Previously, the position of council was to conduct a representative survey on the project before a new way forward was chosen.
The Monday meeting has a single item on the agenda, which would see the abandonment of that plan, instead ploughing ahead with fake grass at the price of $24.4 million dollars.
Gagged: In Ku-ring-gai, a public forum must be held prior to each council meeting in order for members of the public to have a say about any of the matters before the council.
There is no mandate for this in the case of extraordinary meetings, which are meetings called outside of the regular monthly schedule, such as tonight’s.
In 2026, four extraordinary council meetings have been called in Ku-ring-gai. Each of these times, a public forum was also held prior.
In tonight’s case, however, Mayor Wheatley has made the decision to not host a public forum.
That won’t stop some residents. A group railing against the fake grass solution plans to hold their own faux public forum outside council chambers, half an hour prior to the 6pm meeting.
Context: Norman Griffiths Oval is a West Pymble football field, the former home ground of West Pymble Football Club. Since the project was initially proposed, it has had eight successive budget revisions, ballooning from $3.1 million in 2021 to $20 million.
Most recently, the council voted to send the matter to the state government for review before any more money was tipped into it. A report was returned by NSW Public Works detailing the costs and benefits of natural and synthetic turf.
The cheapest option was to install natural turf with an underground water detention system at $24.2 million. The same system with synthetic turf would cost around $180,000 more. Cancelling the project and returning the field to its original state would cost $28 million.
Playtime: The report states that a high standard natural field would provide between 20 – 25 hours of use a week. A synthetic pitch would provide between 60 – 80 hours a week.
It also states a synthetic pitch would require “proactive management to negate environmental impacts”.
Mayor silent: As the Monday meeting approaches, it has been all quiet on the Wheatley front. While the new mayor was happy to celebrate her election with a media release last week, she has since refused to answer questions regarding her actual leadership of the council.
The Lorikeet approached Wheatley for an interview on Friday morning. The council media team told us they would pass our request on to Wheatley. On Monday at 1pm, a Ku-ring-gai media officer told us she would not be available to speak to us before the meeting.