1. Another day dicing with death in Wickham
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Union Street upgrade plan is budgeted in 20/21? And the work next year? Is the public domain plan on the same timeline?
From Newcastle Council Planning Team - Union Street, Wickham footpath upgrades are included within the 21/22 budget. The timeline for the preparation of a public domain plan is longer with investigations, initiation designs in the budget for 21/22, community engagement and design completion the following year and plan finalisation in 23/24.
Glow - Job will be done, when ???
Courtesy consent from Carolyn and Steve who live in Throsby St.
Yes there is a ramp there - but not one to get off!
Nice one NCC !
2. Before
Inaccessible with mud and lumpy mounds of grass.
Dog faeces constantly left in the dirt and grass mounds
Residents have done their best to improve the circumstance.
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No path was provided in medium development approval.
Many have approached decision makers about this neglect and deterioration.
Early 2021
Council advises a concrete footpath.
Letter received from council last week of Sept 2021 and the
neighbourhood is:
I received your letter last week regarding upgrades to 6 Wickham and
Bishopgate St intersection and 6 wickham pedestrian path.
I am delighted that the council values accessibility and improving
infrastructure as much as GLOW and myself. I have included GLOW in
this conversation as we work together to improve Wickham for
the community.
I am happy that there are design inclusions for a paved border, removal
and replacement of street tree and verge and garden bed plantings. These
all help Wickham become a walkable and livable city especially in the high density and built up areas like Wickham St which is mostly concrete due to developer driven outcomes.
The reason I am contacting you is in regards to the
1) design of 6 Wickham St footpath and specially
2) the retention and preservation of the current fenceline strip native garden in front of
6 Wickham St.
In 2017 council approved The Terraces and this included the rendered design which depicted both a concrete footpath and front verge fenceline garden as seen below.
At the beginning of this year, the Terraces strata
funded the native strip garden along the fenceline
for a number of reasons, but largely to finish off the
original vision of the terraces at 6 Wickham St.
As you can see below , it now looks almost identical
to what the council agreed upon with the original
DA renders!
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The native plants have grown really well and not
only has the native garden attracted a lot of community compliments, it's also made Wikcham St a more beautiful place providing more greenery, in an otherwise concrete dominated landscape. It improves the pedestrian experience along Wickham St.
Other Improvements the strip garden has made include the following:
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Planted with City of Newcastle compliant native rush planting that is found around Newcastle and Carrington. Yes, these are your council plant selections.
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Is water wise and filters stormwater pollutants and overland flow.
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Keeps irresponsible dog walkers from running their dogs through the front private gardens of the Terraces to urinate and poo in. This was a major issue and caused alot of damage to the private gardens prior. We don't want to go back to our gardens dying off.
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Captures plastic waste so it can be removed before entering the stormwater system.
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The depth of the garden is inline with the existing strip gardens along Wickham st, therefore to not impede existing pedestrian flow.
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Lastly, makes Wickham St a more beautiful place and is in keeping with the village character and grain of the wider precinct, which includes footpath verge gardens and plantings.
In short, everyone at The Terraces and GLOW and myself expects that the 6 Wickham strip verge garden will be retained and the concrete path design will allow for this small strip garden to remain.This is what I am writing to confirm. That NCC will not remove the original garden approved back through the DA process. Please confirm this.
Also everyone at the Terraces would love to see a plan of what the new footpath design will look like along the st. So if you could send me one that would be great. We are all quite excited for the new accessible footpath and would love to see what it's going to look like in advance.
Best Regards
A S & A S.