The Supreme Court of NSW, court of Appeal handed a second win to the residents of Lidcombe in the case Piety vs Cumberland Council.
Piety (SAUDI BACKED DEVELOPER) has lost its second attempt at blocking a proposed rescission motion by Cumberland Councillors to overturn a decision to sell the council car park on John St, Lidcombe for High Density Apartments. The court decision has been a long time coming. the original rescission motion was to be heard at a Council Meeting in November 2021 but was held up by a court order. The tactic by Piety to delay and drag through the court system is an indication of how deep their pockets are how far they are prepared to go in extracting profits from our community. The first vote to sell the Council Car Park at a Cumberland Council meeting was defeated by one vote when the former Liberal Councillor Tom Zreika abstained from the vote due to a conflict of interest. Miraculously at the next meeting Tom’s declaration of a conflict of interest had disappeared and the vote to sell the John St car park was carried on the casting vote of the OLC Mayor, Steve Christou. Our Local Community (OLC) and Liberal Party Councillors formed an alliance to sell the car park. At that meeting a rescission motion was signed by three Labor Councillors to overturn the sale. That rescission motion has been the subject of court cases since 2021.
On the former Auburn Council there had also been a controversy with the majority of Councillors agreeing to sell the car park to one of their own the notorious Deputy Mayor and Developer, Salim Mehajer. The sale of the car park later became one of the issues that the Auburn Public Inquiry investigated and recommended should be overturned, the Administrator appointed to Auburn Council followed through on that recommendation and overturned the sale. It should be noted that Salim Mehajer tried to Appeal that decision through the Courts and failed.
The common theme with both attempts to sell our car park on John St is that it has been attempt by Councillors to sell a public asset that belonged to the people of Lidcombe and maximise the profit of a private developer at the expense of the people. The Battler has a proud record of consistently opposing the sale of the Council Car Park on and off Council.
On Wednesday night, 6.30pm 7th August the matter of the Rescission to stop the sale of the John St Council Car Park will be debated at the Council Chamber, 16 Memorial Ave Merrylands. We encourage residents to attend the meeting, our presence in the public gallery will guarantee a better outcome for the meeting.