Bus shelters with street furniture and other public facilities such as the toilets and kiosks around Zetland Street will get its first major overhaul from the City of Sydney Council in 20 years.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore confirmed that the project will start in July 2021, after initially discussing the changes in 2017. The overhaul will begin with Sydney CBD and also include other inner eastern suburbs like Glebe and Paddington.
QMS won the contract to replace the old street furnishing in June 2020. The outdoor media company would also be tasked to maintain these street features until 2030.
Mr Moore said that the overhaul could bring “significant revenue” as the outdoor furnishing also doubles as advertisements. However, the ads may be temporarily suspended whilst the refurbishments are underway.
JCDecaux built and installed Sydney’s current outdoor furnishing two decades ago and offered to sell the assets to the Council when it lost the contract to QMS. The Council refused the sale thus JCDecaux will demolish the existing facilities for recycling.
“Our 20-year contract with JCDecaux has expired, and we have recently negotiated a new long-term contract that provides more income to the City and a renewal of our street furniture,” Ms Moore said.
“To put it simply, that price was too high and did not reflect the age and limited remaining life of the infrastructure. Given the new contract provides furniture that is being built to current standards and requirements at no cost to our ratepayers, we declined.
“JCDecaux is required to recycle or reuse the old furniture wherever possible under their own Sustainability Plan, so I’m hopeful their furniture will find new use or be appropriately disposed of.
“Our new street furniture has been designed using the City’s sustainability guidelines – it will modernise our streets while providing revenue to help maintain our high quality services and public spaces and low rates.”
