Last night was an important night for our community with some certainty on the delivery of a much-longed for Lane Cove Sports and Recreation Centre. It was voted to proceed to tender at the ordinary council meeting. There was a lot of behind the scenes collaboration to get to this outcome.

What do Bob Campbell Oval, Lane Cove Golf Course and Kingsford Smith Oval have in common? It’s not grass! They are at the centre of growing tensions in our community on who access to public open space, who should have access in the future, and how the use of our public spaces might need to change as our population grows.

Like many in our community, I was extremely disappointed with the outcome of this week’s extraordinary council meeting. Councillors voted on a proposal to put synthetic turf on Bob Campbell Oval. There are a number of issues I see with what happened.