A new library and community centre in Wollongong’s southern suburbs could be a step closer, after councillors agreed to buy up properties on King Street, Warrawong to build it.
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But, when, how much it will cost, or even where the long-awaited public building may be remains in question, as the vote and debate – as well as any cost or details of the sale – was kept behind closed doors.
At the end of the council’s final meeting for 2017, Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery sprung a confidential motion on councillors, which was not listed on the agenda ahead of the meeting.
He said the item was classified as confidential under the NSW Local Government Act, as the council report contained “commercial information of a confidential nature that would, if disclosed, prejudice the commercial position of the person who supplied it”.
He said this “outweighed the public interest in openness and transparency”.
According to the meeting minutes, which provide limited details, councillors voted unanimously to buy the mystery King Street properties.
No cost details of how much ratepayers could fork out have been provided, with the minutes simply saying that the council should “proceed to contract on negotiated prices as detailed in the confidential report”.
Once the purchase is finalised, the unknown properties will be knocked down, the council minutes say.
The southern suburbs community centre has been in the works since at least 2007, according to council staff.
In that year, Warrawong was selected as the best location as it was considered to be the “regional commercial and service centre” as well as a transport hub, for the south-east of Wollongong.
In 2013, the council adopted a master plan for the revitalisation of Warrawong’s town centre.
The master plan did not identify a specific site for the community facility.
However, residents did say they wanted the library to be closer to the town centre, and the council said it planned to “concentrate the new community centre, library and child care on Cowper Street”.
The “community centre precinct” was identified as being between Greene, Cowper and King Streets, where the existing Warrawong Community Centre is located.
In 2015, the council voted to allow for the purchase a block of public housing lots at 7-17 Montgomery Street with the express purpose of using them for the future library.
Those blocks were to cost $2.8 million.
However, the Mercury was advised the council eventually “decided not to progress” with that purchase.