Future of heritage listed bridge to be considered in a council meeting

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The future of the foot bridge at centre of the Bondi terror attack will be considered at the local council's first meeting since the massacre. Waverly council is planning to bring in measures to commemorate the victims and work towards establishing a permanent memorial.

Transcript

00:00Mayor, it's been a month today since the attack. How's your community doing?

00:07The community is still mourning, it's still grieving. I think it's safe to say all of

00:12Australia is shocked by what occurred here and particularly this community. But the spirit

00:18of Bondi, the spirit of Waverley has really shone bright and the strength and the resilience

00:22of how our communities pull together to support one another, I have to say I'm very, very

00:28proud to lead this community as Mayor and it really is a testament to how wonderful our

00:34community is to be there for one another during this really traumatic period.

00:38And what is the council doing in response to the attack and to commemorate the victims?

00:44The council has undertaken a number of different measures and it will continue to be there to

00:50support the families of the victims and indeed all our community during this terrible and

00:56very difficult time for us. A lot of that will be spoken about at our council meeting tomorrow

01:02on Thursday. There's a mayoral minute that discusses the actions that council has taken

01:07to date and also the actions that we will do into the near future as well.

01:12So could you tell us about some of the ways the council is memorialising the victims?

01:17Yes, so one example like behind us is the Chanukia that was designed by artist Joel Adler and

01:24that was in Dover Heights during the first night of Chanukka. We have brought that here

01:29to Archer Park and that will remain in place until a permanent memorial has been established.

01:35We're also going to dedicate a number of panels as part of our sea mural so that that will also

01:41be part of a temporary memorialisation as well. There will be some other initiatives or memorialisation

01:53and commemoration as well that we will be undertaking as part of the broader process.

01:57Now there's been some debate about the future of the bridge where the attack was carried out.

02:06What are the next steps? So there's a wide variety of views and opinions of the footbridge

02:13which is right next to us and I think it's really important that our community be consulted

02:18and have their say. Whilst I understand for some there's some urgency, I believe we need

02:23to take a long period of time to really understand the views of the community and what should occur

02:28here and I don't want to place any pressure on council or the state government or the community

02:34in being able to make a decision on this. The bridge is heritage listed and you've received

02:40a report from 2024 saying that it's nearing the end of its life anyway. Will that be a

02:46factor in any decision on whether to knock it down or to keep it? It will be but there

02:52are other options as well, for example restoration. So the report which I'm asking to come back

02:58to council will canvass at different options, what the process needs to be in place and

03:04also costings as well on a variety of different options and it's not just this particular footbridge,

03:09there's also the southern footbridge as well. They were both built at the same time and

03:13they both have the same asset condition. Thank you very much, Mayor. Thank you.

03:16Thank you, man. Thank you.

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