MINISTER for Roads Duncan Gay has really lost the plot if he thinks ripping out hundreds of trees in and around the lush sanctuary of Sydney Park for a monstrous multi-lane toll road, complete with two polluting air stacks, can in any way be described as a ‘‘great result’’ for the community.
The overall project — including compulsory acquisition of parkland and widening local roads into new highways — will not boost open space. It will reduce it.
Mr Gay’s claim that only 1500sq m is being taken from the edge of Sydney Park is simply untrue.
Aside from the large section of parkland already in its ownership, the NSW government wants to take an additional 7000sq m from Sydney Park.
Much of the land in this area, which the government labels “open space”, will be fragmented or inaccessible. Large sections will be cut off by ramps and flyovers and will include dirty air stacks.
Once it’s built, the interchange will be the size of Sydney Park and spew 70,000 vehicles on to already gridlocked streets. It will push air quality in the area up to dangerous levels and any space left will be impacted by noise — hardly the “oasis” they’re claiming it to be. .
It certainly won’t be the kind of space you’d want anyone, especially young children or older people, to spend any time in.
What is unconscionable is that this project comes after decades of studies, in Australia and internationally, have revealed that major road projects never solve congestion — that, ultimately, they only bring more cars.
It comes as other global cities are tearing down freeways and replacing them with clean, efficient public transport networks.
But under the NSW Liberal-National government, Sydney is getting a 1950s solution that we know from experience will not work.
Last year, the government transferred control of WestConnex to the Sydney Motorway Corporation, which means that Council and the community cannot get information through freedom of information requests.
So we commissioned a report from SGS Economics and Planning. It is the only independent review of WestConnex, and it is damning. Premier Mike Baird is shown plans on the WestConnex at Rozelle with Roads Minister Duncan Gay and Federal Ministerfor Infrastucture, Paul Fletcher at the Rozelle railyards / Picture: Mark Evans
WestConnex will bring tens of thousands of cars into the city, on to roads and major connections already at capacity, such as Broadway, the Anzac Bridge and the Harbour Bridge. New urban renewal areas such as Green Square and Ashmore are also at risk.
No one knows where all these new cars will go — are we meant to believe they’ll just disappear?
WestConnex won’t even deliver for Western Sydney commuters, the very people Mr Gay claims to be building this toll road for.
The vast majority use public transport, they don’t drive.
And for those who do drive, WestConnex will add hundreds of dollars in tolls to their weekly commuting cost, save most less than five minutes in travel time and reach capacity as soon as 2031 — just eight years after completion.
WestConnex will devastate the east and fail the people of the west.
Future stages could see the total cost reach at least $30 billion, making it one of the most expensive road projects ever undertaken worldwide.
On any measure, this is an appalling waste of taxpayers’ money — money that should be spent on the public transport, schools and hospitals that NSW desperately needs.
It’s time for the Premier to step in before his Roads Minister grinds Sydney to a standstill.
Clover Moore is Lord Mayor of Sydney