Greens councillor John Mackenzie has torn strips off a lord mayoral minute trumpeting the installation of basketball courts in National Park, describing it as an attempt to "rewrite history".
At City of Newcastle's ordinary meeting on Tuesday night, lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes tabled a motion which asked, in part, that council "endorses the provision of 4 new basketball courts, currently under construction, following the success of the construction of 2 basketball courts in September 2020". It noted the project's history and the popularity of the initial courts.
The motion followed a public voice meeting last week about the courts, where members of a community group and some councillors raised concerns about the process of their installation.
Their concerns centered on how the council went ahead with building the courts despite being midway through drafting a new management plan for the 20-hectare reserve.
At that meeting, CEO Jeremy Bath said it was staff that had made the decision to proceed because there was a "chronic shortage" of basketball facilities across the city and the initial two had proved "extremely popular".
Cr Mackenzie said the lord mayoral minute tabled on Tuesday was an "extraordinary motion to bring before this council" given the concerns raised by the community group.
"What you're doing here is you're retrospectively trying to gain approval for a decision that was made well outside the principles of good governance and accountability," he said.
"This motion, actually would have been supportable, in fact it would have been laudable, had it been brought prior to the decision to go ahead with ... four basketball courts during the period of a plan of management.
"This motion is clearly four months too late.
"Bear in mind, the community [group] was told they couldn't even install as much as a park bench or a drinking fountain because that plan ... was under development.
"And council has gone ahead and installed, not just a basketball court, but an outdoor basketball precinct.
"This motion looks to rewrite history."
Cr Mackenzie went on to say "the horse has now bolted" given the courts are under construction, and "this just can't be how council conducts business".
"National Park is community land. When we seek community input, we are getting a mandate for the kinds of things that we do on that land," he said.
"No one on this council has the right to decide unilaterally what we do on community land, that's why we go to consultation.
"The fact that the basketball courts are well liked ... has absolutely nothing to do with the decision to unilaterally push ahead with [them]."
The lord mayor responded by saying she was "disappointed" the issue was "being politicised". She described Cr Mackenzie's "whole speech and diatribe" as "glib" and "grandstandy, at best".
She said Cr Mackenzie and others who had taken issue with the courts' installation had not raised concerns when the council had turned an adjacent disused space into "green, open space" without consultation.
She said the basketball courts were a "well overdue" redevelopment of an old tennis facility, and the existing 2012 plan of management had allowed for their installation.
"I actually think that we should have been much more proactive and had that black asphalt converted into courts or activated in some way many years ago," she said.
"It's an excellent outcome and the community are very happy with it. I think council staff have followed the right process".
Cr Carol Duncan (ALP) said the council needed to be able to "get on with basic business decisions for the community like this without needing to run every single item back past councillors".
Cr John Church (IND), who spoke out about the process in last week's meeting, criticised the lord mayor for describing Cr Mackenzie's speech as "diatribe".
"I don't think that's appropriate language for this chamber, it's a little disrespectful," he said.
The lord mayor interjected Cr Church's speech before Cr Mackenzie raised multiple unsuccessful points of order and a motion of dissent.
She told Cr Mackenzie to "take a breath" and "calm down", saying he was "very riled up" and "flustered over this".
WATCH THE BASKETBALL COURTS DEBATE BELOW FROM 14:15
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"I can see a lot of division being created in the community that is very unnecessary, over what is very good public infrastructure," she said.
When Cr Church resumed, he said he could not support the lord mayor's motion because the management plan consultation process "seems to have been hijacked".
"Friends of National Park ... were very surprised to be notified just the day before that construction was being commenced," he said.
"And we all know ... that during consultation basketball courts were not raised as a top priority by the community.
"Why basketball courts? Why six basketball courts and why now when the plan of management process was still underway and community consultation was mid-stream?"
