A New South Wales court has extended an injunction against the “hard demolition” of the Cox Architecture-designed Sydney Football Stadium (Allianz Stadium) until 8 March, when a final decision will be made on the fate of the 30-year-old building.
Justice Nicola Pain granted the extension in the NSW Land and Environment Court on 25 February in a win for the community action group that brought the case, Local Democracy Matters.
“We’re really pleased with this judgement,” the group’s spokesperson Chris Maltby told reporters outside court. “[This allows] enough time for the judge to consider her position and produce the final judgement on the case.”
The injunction means that the roof of the stadium will not be allowed to be removed as was planned. The demolition contractor Lendlease has already begun stripping seats.
Local Democracy Matters – which was formed to fight council amalgamations – is arguing that the planning approval given for the stadium’s demolition in December 2018 was invalid because Infrastructure NSW, the government agency responsible for the demolition, did not follow its own planning rules. It argues that that the demolition proposal was not exhibited for the required time and that design excellence was not appropriately considered.
The court also heard that the government suppressed information about contamination of the site, including the presence of potentially carcinogenic materials, The Guardian reported.
Supporting the community group in court is Waverly Council, which together with the City of Sydney and Randwick Council has been an outspoken critic of the stadium plan.
Waverley mayor John Wakefield said in January that there was a community expectation that a project of such significance would fully comply with the legislative requirements and processes.
“The legal advice we are in receipt of casts doubt of this having occurred,” he said.
“We believe that this potential non-compliance is egregious, with adverse impact on Waverley’s residents and businesses.”
Cox Architecture’s winning design for the replacement stadium.
Image: Cox Architecture
The existing 40,000-seat stadium at Moore Park was designed by Philip Cox and completed in 1988 for the bicentennial of European settlement in Australia. The government announced its plan to demolish the stadium and replace it with a $705 million, 45,000-seat facility in 2017. It also planned to demolish the Populous and Bligh Lobb Sports Architecture-designed Sydney Olympic Park stadium, completed in 1999, to replace it with a $1.25 billion rectangular stadium, which would seat 75,000.
Amid public outcry and criticism from architects and public figures, the government reversed its decision to demolish Sydney Olympic Park, but pushed ahead with its plans for Allianz Stadium.
Cox Architecture, the practice behind the original stadium, was appointed to design its replacement after winning a design competition in 2018.
With New South Wales voters heading to the polls on 23 March, the handling of the stadium has become a major election issue, with the Labor opposition leader Michael Daley attacking the demolition as “unnecessary and wasteful.” Labor’s policy should it win election is to cease demolition works and refurbish the existing stadium.
More than 218,000 people have signed a petition launched by former rugby player and media personality Peter FitzSimons calling on the government to stop the demolition.
Local Democracy Matters’ Chris Maltby said the court’s extension of the injunction was critical to the stadium’s survival.
“You could probably repair anything if you had enough money [but] this is essentially [about] making sure the building stays in place until there’s a chance to hear our arguments properly,” he said.
