The residents have their say:

“The City of Sydney needs to be a liveable place, where residents still matter, and locals have easy access to their daily needs,” says local resident and ratepayer, Helen.

In a precinct with plenty of parks and public areas, why would Council be considering a hugely expensive project for which there is no demonstrated need? Why would Council deliberately make the lives of locals and local workers even harder?

Try visiting Woolworths and Big W in the lunch hour periods and after 5pm when everyone is in there, buying groceries for dinner or fitting in home purchases. They’re packed!

If the Lord Mayor and Councillors regularly shopped for their own needs at the stores they intend to demolish, they would understand the importance to local residents, along with city workers and tourists.

So many food and retail shops in the CBD have been forced to close, by rent and staff costs, Covid, and energy prices. Now Council wants to close the only proper supermarket in the whole CBD, the Big W homewares store, and surrounding businesses.

It shows how out of touch the council is with the lives and needs of ordinary citizens.

Nor has the council bothered to properly consult ratepayers, and we’ll be the ones expected to help pay for this, and for all the ongoing costs into the future.

We haven’t been respected with proper justification or had our say on a project with enormous impact, but questionable benefit.

We don’t want and can’t afford more rate rises to fund an unnecessary financial liability which will create significant inconvenience, with longer distances to shop.

We ratepayers and residents call upon Council to re-consider this project, especially since it will be funded from our rates.

If Council feels there is this is a high priority need for the community, then we call upon Council to genuinely and properly consult and represent the project in person.

I urge all residents to review the following petition and represent your interests to the City of Sydney.