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About the request
We have received a request from a West Croydon resident to consider renaming the local West Croydon reserve, known as Croydon Avenue Reserve, to "Eileen Harris Reserve". Council approved the consideration of this request late last year, and this includes consulting with the community to understand your feedback about this proposed change.
The existing name of the reserve, Croydon Avenue Reserve, is the default name applied to the reserve when it was originally developed. Without specific naming requests, public places are named after a prominent adjoining street, locality indicator or a suburb as it provides an easy and practical reference for the local community, users and emergency services. Occasionally, we do receive requests from members of the public to name public places to honour loved ones, community members, previous landowners, historical figures and the like.
The request to change the reserve name is in recognition of 93-year-old, West Croydon resident, Eileen Harris, who has lived in West Croydon for over 80 years and is an active, involved contributor to her local community, it's history and creating social connections.
Croydon Avenue Reserve is located in West Croydon, abutted by William Street, Croydon Avenue Cul-de-sac, and Cedar Avenue.
The reserve is 3,760m2 and contains a local playground with shade sails (which was recently renewed in 2022/23), a half basketball court, a shelter and picnic settings, and established trees, turf and landscaping.
The reserve is designated as a 'Recreation Park' in Councils Open Space Strategy.
Aerial map of the area showing Croydon Avenue Reserve highlighted in blue.
After considering the request under our Reserve Renaming Policy to confirm the request meets policy conditions, the Council approved community consultation to be undertaken on the request before they make a final decision.
Eileen Harris is a 93-year-old resident of the City of Charles Sturt and has lived in the area of West Croydon for over 80 years. She shares much knowledge of the area's history and has been, and continues to be, an active contributor to her community. Eileen has played an important part in shaping her neighbourhood and the local reserve and helps to drive the annual Christmas in the Park celebration. She is a great role model and ensures the social connectedness of her community continues.
Read more about Eileen in the request that was received to rename the reserve.
Following consultation with the community, a report will be prepared to summarise the outcomes of the engagement and what we heard. This report will be considered by the Asset Management Committee when it makes a final decision on the reserve renaming request.
This decision is likely to be made at the Committee meeting of April or May 2024.
As well as the feedback from the community, the Committee will also consider the weight and merit of the renaming request, expert advice, other historical, cultural, social, environmental, or economic factors, as well as Council's discretionary view.
While we directly contact the residents and property owners who reside within a certain distance of the reserve by letter, we only share the final outcome with the participants of the consultation process (eg if you completed the online or hardcopy form or phoned us to share your feedback).
We will also directly notify anyone who selected to "Follow" the project on Your Say Charles Sturt. This is done by clicking the "Follow" button in the top banner of this project page. You must be a registered Your Say user to follow the page.
Feel free to reach out to us via the details on this page if you want to be kept informed but don't participate and don't wish to sign up to Your Say Charles Sturt.
If the community does not support the request to rename the reserve after Eileen Harris, the Committee will consider this when it makes its decision. If the decision of the Committee is to reject the request to change the name, the reserve will keep its current name, "Croydon Avenue Reserve."
If the Council approved the request to rename the reserve, we will commission a new reserve name sign to be designed and installed at the reserve, and a public notice will be published in The Advertiser newspaper to announce the new reserve name.
We will also notify the relevant statutory and emergency authorities of the change to the reserve name.
Not participating, but want to know the outcome?
Please follow the page to receive notification about the decision. You must be registered for Your Say to do this.
