Going against the advice of heritage consultants, Ryde Mayor Trenton Brown will again seek heritage protection for TG Millner Field, claiming a previous report did not “encapsulate the full criteria of heritage” for the park he grew up playing footy on.
But six years on, the report’s author says the facts haven’t changed.
What happened: Plans to convert the former home of Eastwood Rugby Club into an 132 home mini-suburb have been pushed back six months by Ryde Council, which has placed an interim heritage order on the field.
Heritage, heritage: The heritage listing of the field was investigated by Ryde Council in 2019. After engaging independent heritage consultants, a report was returned to council advising against any heritage listing.
What he said: When asked about this, Mayor Brown claimed the report was “not sufficient” and failed to consider the site’s rarity. When informed the report did in fact state “the field is not rare”, he said he’d beg to differ.
Chery Kemp, one of the heritage experts who wrote the report, says it still holds up.
“Even at the time I got the feeling that the community wanted a different answer than the one I gave them”, she told the Lorikeet. “But the heritage process is well established”.
The report describes the site as a “typical suburban sports field developed in the 1960s”.
“[It] has no aesthetic or research significance. [It] has little historical significance”.
How we got here: In 2021, North Ryde RSL Club, the owners of the North Ryde field were keen to repurpose their land. The claimed maintenance costs had become prohibitive.
Over time, a plan emerged to redevelop the site into low-rise housing.
Mayor Brown has railed against the plan, claiming the field is an essential part of Ryde’s “sporting and recreational fabric”.
He said it was important to preserve the field in order to maintain green open space in Ryde.
On Wednesday, Brown and five other councillors successfully delayed development by placing a six-month interim heritage order on the site. When asked about the cost of this, Brown said it “won't be excessive”.
What is that: Interim heritage orders are put in place when a site with potential heritage value (but no official listing) is under threat. They are lodged by local councils, and create a period of up to 12 months where no work can be done on a site while it is assessed.
Interim heritage orders are also in place on Bydown Street, Neutral Bay and Beaconsfield Road, Chatswood.
Will it work? The interim order gives no guarantee the field will be saved, only that they will be assessed for heritage value. If none can be found, work will go on.
The decision also risks attracting the ire of NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully, who has previously warned local councils that “new heritage listings must not be used to avoid delivering new homes”.
Kemp said that while she can understand the significance of the field to the community, heritage cannot be fabricated to prevent development.
Woods: Eastwood Rugby Club is currently playing their final season with the field as their homeground and face Sydney University in the preliminary finals this Saturday. After that, they plan to move to a new homeground, proposed to be built at Fred Caterson Reserve, Castle Hill.
This development has received significant community backlash for its clearing of native trees and impact on local wildlife.