Tell NSW Planning Sec why Stage 3 Westconnex must not be approved

Thousands of submissions have been filed explaining why Stage 3 WestCONnex must not be approved. But past experience leaves us very concerned that NSW Planning will ignore these submissions and advise the Minister to approve this disastrous project. Meanwhile Sydney's tollway disaster continues to change and unravel on an almost daily basis. Add you voice to a letter that includes powerful reasons why any fair, merits based process would not approve the Stage 3 Environmental Impact Statement.

Thousands of submissions have been filed explaining why Stage 3 WestCONnex must not be approved. But past experience leaves us very concerned that NSW Planning will ignore these submissions and advise the Minister to approve this disastrous project. Meanwhile Sydney's tollway disaster continues to change and unravel on an almost daily basis. Add you voice to a letter that includes powerful reasons why any fair, merits based process would not approve the Stage 3 Environmental Impact Statement.

Letter to Secretary of NSW Planning

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New developments add to reasons why Stage 3 Westconnex must not be approved. Sign our letter to the Secretary of NSW Planning

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Subject:

Secretary of NSW Planning  
Ms Carolyn McNally,
 
Dear Ms McNally,

The purpose of this letter is to urge you to advise the Minister for Planning to reject the application for Stage 3 of WestConnex.  It is not intended to be regarded as a submission but as a letter requiring response from you.  
 
Thousands of citizens, the City of Sydney and Inner West Council raised significant objections to the flawed Stage 3 EIS. Since the public submissions period closed, further developments highlight why approval of this project would risk undermining confidence in the Department of Planning, community health, the finances of NSW and expose the NSW community to more traffic and cost of living pressures. 
 
My reasons for urging you to reject the proposal include:
 
The referral to ICAC of the circumstances of the 2012 lease extension of 7 Darley Rd, Leichhardt calls into question the acquisition of this site for construction of the M4-M5 Link. Whilst this matter is before ICAC and until any investigation is complete and ICAC has released its findings, the Dept of Planning cannot sanction the use of the Darley St site as a major construction site for this project. The suggestion that this is a separate matter to the EIS is flawed. If there has been inappropriate or improper dealings, these may well have influenced the decision to select this highly inappropriate site.  It would be contrary to the public interest for the Department of Planning to make a decision which allows any person to benefit from such conduct.  
 
The underground Rozelle Interchange failed to attract any suitable Expression of Interest to design and construct, and the procurement process for this part of Stage 3 has been returned to RMS for management. The feasibility of building a multi-level underground interchange has been publicly questioned. There are no examples of such a construction in the world, and there are no applicable standards for constructing the proposed interchange. The EIS is based on an underground interchange. The EIS and the Project cannot be approved until the ability to build the Interchange as set out in the EIS has been confirmed by information available to public scrutiny and comment by independent experts. 
 
The EIS as it stands, and the Project, cannot be approved without the Darley Road construction site and the Rozelle interchange.If the Rozelle underground interchange has to be removed or postponed from stage 3 of the project, the traffic modelling of the whole project presented in the EIS would be flawed and require review. 
 
In addition the Inner West Council's recent research shows that this project will generate large increases in traffic on roads in the Inner West. Such traffic modelling should have been included in the EIS. Stage 3 should not be considered until this and other inadequacies in the traffic modelling are cured. The application and assumptions of the Westconnex Traffic Model needs to be made public and a more thorough analysis that includes more local roads included. The limitations of AECOM's  traffic modelling have been continually pointed out to NSW Planning. The Inner West Council's findings on the impact on local roads must be incorporated into consideration of the project. If the traffic analysis is inadequate, the noise and air monitoring will be affected and equally inadequate.
 
The EIS for stage 3 breaches undertakings given to the residents of Haberfield and Ashfield in the M4 East approval that they would not be forced to endure more above-ground construction sites for future projects, and construction work would end by 2018. Now the EIS for stage 3 includes new above-ground construction sites and they will suffer cumulative impacts from extra years of overlapping and consecutive construction in the rush to deliver stage 3 of the project. It would be unconscionable for Planning to approve such a breach of promise that was frequently made by the Sydney Motorway Corporation to Haberfield residents. 
 
Despite the then Minister Rob Stokes and NSW Planning's assurances that conditions would mitigate noise, dust and other impacts, there have been hundreds of complaints against WestCONnex and residents have been forced to live in conditions that are severely affecting their health and quality of life. It is now clear to all that unacceptable proposals cannot be sanitised by conditions that can either be ignored, weakened or overridden when requested. 
 
The justification for the EIS depends on the Sydney Gateway and the F6. The EIS makes clear that if these projects are not completed the positive case for Stage 3 collapses. While a plan for a section of the F6 has been released by NSW, it is not clear that the rest of the project will be completed, let alone within the timeframe provided in the EIS. This change must change the traffic analysis in the EIS

In addition, on November 14, the NSW government announced that it has no current solution for providing a link from WestCONnex to Sydney Airport or Port Botany.  The core justification for WestCONnex has previously been stated to include time savings between Parramatta and Sydney Airport. The scenario on which the 2033 traffic projections are based, no longer applies. 
 
On these and other grounds , the SMC and RMS should withdraw the deeply flawed EIS. If they do not do so, the Department of Planning should advise the Minister to refuse the application. 
 
I look forward to receiving a response from you,

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