Council and residents proceed with freedom of information requests on Jannali commuter car park

Both Sutherland Shire Council and residents who fought the plans are proceeding with GIPA - Government Information (Public Access) - requests for relevant documents.

Community group Save Our Homes - Jannali 2226 has formally thanked Mayor Steve Simpson and the council for their support and presented a framed memento, comprising a plaque, campaign T-shirt and front page of the Leader.

A similar presentation was made to the Leader in recognition of its coverage.

Bad weather led to the postponement of a street party planned for last Sunday.

A council spokesman said it continued to seek information about the proposal, which had involved the compulsory acquisition of nine homes.

"While we share the community's relief that this plan is no longer being pursued, council feels there is still a compelling community interest in understanding how Transport for NSW arrived at this decision and to ensure we have all the necessary information to enable us to work with TfNSW on the delivery of commuter car parking in Jannali," he said.

"Through understanding the rationale behind this decision, council hopes to support TfNSW to make planning decisions that better reflect the interests of our community in delivering commuter car parking."

Tom Richards, a spokesman for the residents' group, said, "We are still pursuing information under GIPA in order to better understand the decision making process and the considerations that led to this being put forward as a preferred site without any consultation with council or the wider community".

"We will keep working so that we can identify opportunities to improve processes and transparency to stop what happened to us repeating to others in the future".

Mr Richards said the group would be watching with interest the integrated development in Box Lane behind the shopping centre, where the commuter car park is now proposed to be located.

"We would happily have a role if it is useful to the project and the wider community, but we mainly want to see the council get on and deliver it," he said.

The government had claimed the site on the western side of the station was chosen because the council was moving too slowly on progressing the Box Lane development.

Miranda MP Eleni Petinos said on March 4, "The Box Lane car park was always the NSW Government's first choice for the commuter car park".

"We spent more than 18 months liaising with council on this site without any success," she said.

A chronology of key dates, provided in a council report, includes: