Mayor of Lane Cove, Merri Southwood, was warmly welcomed at 2RRR on ‘Monday Morning Matters’ with Mark Henderson “Hendo”, catching up on all things Lane Cove!
The pair discussed the impact traffic and public transport have on our local community, our environment, and the exciting upcoming Sports and Recreation Centre ‘Galuwa’.
As new developments continue to emerge in our local community, traffic and public transportation continue to be a burden to many.
“It is a problem. A big problem at the moment is around the little village centre… There’s inevitably going to be more development there, and the traffic flow is pretty tight at the moment.”
Mayor Southwood furthered, “There is no doubt we are a very public transport dependent LGA.”
“We’re hoping once this centre (Sports and Recreation Centre ‘Galuwa’) operates and it’s up and running, the State Government might be, or Busways might be incentivised to run a few more bus services.”
Our local Sports and Recreation Centre, ‘Galuwa’, is located on River Road, past Lane Cove’s Golf Centre, and will be a regional sports centre for our local community.
It is to include four indoor multi-purpose courts, 4 outdoor multi-purpose courts, Golf Amenities, 4 program spaces, 1 multi-purpose space with timber flooring, a Bistro, and outdoor dining, as well as 250 parking spaces, including accessible, bicycle, and motorcycle parking.
Please see the attached link for more information regarding this upcoming development.
Mayor Southwood mentioned that this development is currently on track and will be accessible to the public between the end of December 2025 – early January 2026.
“We’re sure it’ll be a raging success,” Mayor Southwood commented.
In reflection, Mayor Southwood discussed the many challenges that were undertaken during this exciting development.
The project cost our local government area (LGA) “81 million dollars”, with “5 million” funded from the State Government.
“It comes at a bit of an opportunity cost, but we think it will pay for itself.”
As a result of creating open space for this development, our local environment was nevertheless impacted.
“We did lose quite a few trees, but the community nursery is generating. They actually went out and collected seeds from the trees that were cut down, and they propagated replacement trees. So there’s many thousands of trees going in,” said Mayor Southwood.
September is Lane Cove’s festival month, and for the first time, Lane Cove has partnered with Sydney Fringe Festival to bring entertainment, food, and fun music to our doorsteps!
Please see the link below to find out more information regarding this event.
https://sydneyfringe.com/lane-cove-festival