Roads and Maritime Services v Rockdale City Council & Ors [2015] NSWSC 1844

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Roads and Maritime Services v Rockdale City Council & Ors [2015] NSWSC 1844 Hearing dates: 12, 13 and 17 November 2015 Decision date: 04 December 2015 Jurisdiction: Equity Before: Black J Decision: Stand over the proceedings for a short time to allow the parties an opportunity to make submissions as to the form of any declaratory orders that should now be made and to allow the Council an opportunity to give effect to the trusts or give appropriate undertakings. Catchwords: EQUITY – trusts and trustees – purpose trusts – where trustee was a local council – where council held land or parts of it on trust for a county road and other purposes – where condition of trusts was that council transfer land or parts of it required for a county road to named body when requested at no cost – where Plaintiff sought transfer of the parcels of land that it 'required' for the construction of a road – whether council required to transfer only that part of land that was previously 'reserved' or that part of land which was now 'required' to the Plaintiff under the terms of the trusts – whether use for a road encompassed ancillary requirements for the construction of the road.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT – regulation and administration – ordinances, regulations, by-laws and local laws – where council held parcels of land on trust for particular purposes – whether obligations arising under the trusts were affected by Local Government Act 1993 (NSW) – application of County of Cumberland Planning Scheme Ordinance

CHARITIES – charitable purposes – other purposes beneficial to public – where council held land on trust for road purposes and for the purposes of a public park, reserve or recreation area – whether trusts created for purposes of roads and road works are charitable trusts – whether trusts created for purposes of parks and public reserves are charitable trusts – whether trust purposes impractical or impossible – whether to order cy-pres scheme