According to news reports, stage one of the $50 million NSW Cricket Centre of Excellence at Sydney Olympic Park is well on track to be constructed by early next year thanks to the NSW Government’s fast-tracked planning program.

The centre, which will be home to the NSW Blues, Sydney Thunder, Sydney Sixers and Women’s Big Bash League squads, is one of dozens of projects racing forward one year on since the launch of the Planning System Acceleration Program.

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Rob Stokes says the fast-tracked planning program was part of the Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic to create thousands of jobs and attract billions of dollars of investment into the state’s economy.

“The construction and development sectors have been vital in keeping people in jobs and supporting our economic recovery from the pandemic,” says Stokes.

Projects also underway include:

St Anthony of Padua Catholic College, Liverpool ($150 million, 339 jobs)
Alex Avenue Public School, Blacktown ($43.9 million, 410 jobs)
Bunnings Warehouse, Leppington ($22 million, 400 jobs)
Mamre Precinct Rezoning - 850 hectares of industrial land (eight DAs lodged and one underway)
Blacktown CBD – rezoning for mixed and commercial use (two DAs lodged and two underway)

Stokes says the NSW Cricket Centre of Excellence is one of a “leading sports facility in Sydney Olympic Park [that] will help boost the performance of NSW cricketers, and will feature a main senior oval, secondary junior oval, 50 outdoor turf practice nets, a 15-lane indoor facility, elite and community change rooms, full gymnasium, rehabilitation and recovery centre and a public café,” Mr Stokes said.

The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment has approved 841 planning applications since July last year, and also cleared 81 planning proposals for land rezonings, which had been stuck in the system for more than four years in just three months from November 2020 to January 2021.

Image: Alex Avenue Public School, Blacktown / NSW gov't supplied.

Branko Miletic

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