The future of the Bondi footbridge has been placed on hold after a meeting of Waverley council heard it was \u201creally upsetting\u201d that the matter had ignited such fierce public debate.<\/p>\n
The future of the heritage-listed pedestrian footbridge<\/a> used by the alleged Bondi attackers was on the agenda of Thursday evening\u2019s extraordinary meeting called to discuss a range of matters a month after the tragedy.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, said the footbridge should be torn down<\/a> to prevent it from becoming a \u201cghoulish reminder\u201d of the atrocities that occurred, or worse, \u201cexploited by reprehensible people in the future\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMy personal view is that it would be better to knock down, but it\u2019s the council\u2019s responsibility and I understand they\u2019re speaking with the victims and their families and I think they should have the final say,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Waverley\u2019s mayor, Will Nemesh, said there had been \u201cmany ideas\u201d about how to mark the tragedy but the consultation process would \u201ctake time\u201d.<\/p>\n He raised a structural report, commissioned last year, which found both pedestrian bridges at Bondi Beach were \u201creaching the end of their useful life and require replacement within several years\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe replacement of the bridge may form part of a future memorial,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201c[But] any decision made on the future of one or both bridges will be made in an appropriate time and manner following consultation with the NSW government, Jewish community, Waverley community and the families of victims and survivors.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not making a decision on the future of one, both or either of pedestrian bridges tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n Waverley\u2019s deputy mayor, Keri Spooner, said she wished \u201cnothing had ever been said about the bridge\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI find it really upsetting that that happened,\u201d she said, adding it had detracted attention away from the \u201cone thing we should be focused on\u201d, which was the tragedy on 14 December and loss of 15 innocent lives.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course there\u2019s going to be consultation and it is way too soon for anyone to be making definitive statements about anything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t worry about the bridges, what about the playground? There are so many things to be thought about here.\u201d<\/p>\n A motion, passed unanimously by councillors, determined that council staff would prepare a report to determine the \u201ccost, timetable and approvals process for a replacement and\/or restoration of both heritage-listed pedestrian bridges\u201d.<\/p>\n Councillors agreed the state government would lead discussions about a permanent memorial with the families of victims, the Council and the Jewish community, with a timetable yet to be determined.<\/p>\n In the interim, they passed a motion for the establishment of a number of dedicated mural panels to be displayed for a year along the Bondi Beach promenade.<\/p>\n On 5 January, the council relocated a menorah in Dover Heights, created by Jewish artist Joel Adler, to Archer Park in Bondi to act as a temporary memorial to the victims of the terror attack.<\/p>\n In a tribute to first responders, councillors also agreed to make nominations to the prime minister\u2019s special honours list to posthumously acknowledge Boris and Sofia Gurman<\/a> and Reuven Morrison for their \u201cbravery in risking and sacrificing their lives\u201d to stop the alleged gunmen. They also agreed that Ahmed al-Ahmed<\/a>, Gefen Bitton and Leibel Lazaroff should be granted the \u201ckeys of the city\u201d for their actions.<\/p>\n A number of community speakers prior to the council meeting called for the bridge to remain standing.<\/p>\n Two Jewish people living in the area, Carolyn Saul and Adrienne Kern, said they saw the bridge as \u201cintegral to the Bondi landscape\u201d and suggested covering it in mosaic tiles with messages of \u201clight, compassion and healing\u201d as a reminder of the community\u2019s strength.<\/p>\n Nicolette Boaz, a member of Friends of Bondi Pavilion, warned against \u201crushed decisions\u201d to knock anything down and destroy heritage.<\/p>\n They echoed the views of co-ceo of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, who said on social media that the bridge should remain standing and \u201cbecome something the killers would have hated \u2013 a tribute to our dead and to the story of Channukah\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The future of the Bondi footbridge has been placed on hold after a meeting of Waverley council heard…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":518569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-518568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115900652152975273","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}