Lake Macquarie Private Hospital Tower

Four generations of my immediate family have owned and/or lived in our family home in Casey Street, Gateshead for over 6 decades. Over the last 8-10 years my family has experienced increased angst and distress from the cumulative impact of continued development and construction works by Lake Macquarie Private Hospital (LMPH). These impacts have included increased and at times chaotic traffic conditions from about 2.30-3.30pm on school days from the Wiripaang School exit, as well as incoming pedestrian and car traffic onto Sydney Street from St Mary’s High School. There is a lack of residential parking due to increased numbers of LMPH workers and visitors, drivers sometimes parking over residential driveways make it difficult and dangerous for residents to enter and exit their own driveways. Increased traffic has also decimated Casey Street into a series of recurrent potholes which need to be avoided when exiting residential driveways . The collective impact of numerous building extensions over the years has left many residents feeling disempowered. As identified in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), Gateshead is a suburb with many disadvantaged residents, most of whom cannot access LMPH facilities but have to endure the effects of its continued expansion.
The traffic study by TTPA does not indicate the time frame used to gauge ‘peak’ traffic flow. There needs to be a traffic count and observation on school days between 2.30-3.30pm. The combination of Wirapaang PS students being picked up by car, school pedestrian traffic , plus LMPH traffic from the carpark all using the same exit onto Hughes and O’Brien streets can be chaotic and dangerous.
The current Sydney Street crossing is often obscured by parked cars, and during peak traffic times (2.30-3.30pm) it’s also obscured by lines of traffic exiting and entering Sydney Street from the highway. Since LMPH built the carpark on what was part of the grounds of Wiripaang PS there has been a need for an additional pedestrian crossing on Sydney Street, ideally near the intersection with Jamieson Street. This would allow an increased level of safety for those school students walking home to the northern area of Gateshead.
Only northbound highway traffic can enter and exit at Hughes Street, there needs to be signage indicating to turn left onto Hughes Street for the LMPH carpark -this may help alleviate traffic congestion at peak times around O’Brien and Sydney streets. A roundabout at the Sydney and O’Brien intersection may also help to alleviate traffic congestion coming out of the joint Wiripaang PS and LMPH carpark exit, this intersection also has traffic coming into it from private specialist businesses on opposing corners of the intersection. However, a roundabout is probably no longer an option because LMPH has been extended out onto the verge.
The EIS has not considered parking for Gateshead residents and their visitors. Parking on Sydney, Casey, O’Brien and Jamieson Streets (up to Oxford Street) should be timed, for example, 2 hour parking between 6am and 6pm Monday to Friday with residents in those streets being provided with a parking voucher to exempt them from parking restrictions. This may alleviate the daily stress residents endure wondering if they can drive out of their driveway, whether there will be a park close to their home, etc.
The proposed Casey Street entrance to LMPH tower will result in increased pedestrian traffic.Due to the steep incline many people cannot walk the section of Casey Street on the verge of 37 O’Brien Street , for safety reasons and accessibility there will need to be a proper footpath, as well as steps and possibly a handrail on the steepest section of Casey Street.
The cumulative impact of increased LMPH traffic has led to rapid and continual deterioration of the Casey Street road surface, creating a series of potholes- the road will need to be resurfaced and properly sealed.
When cars are parked on both sides of the road, Casey Street is only wide enough for one way traffic. The road may need to be widened, and verges and driveways repaired (at no cost to residents).
Painted yellow lines indicating how close to driveways and corners drivers can legally park would make the neighbourhood safer. LMPH workers and visitors are parking up to the corner of Casey and Jamieson Street intersection, this creates a safety issue because oncoming traffic is obscured. Worryingly, Casey Street is on occasion used by school students who ride scooters down the hill, often going straight through this intersection. With increased LMPH traffic this practise becomes even more dangerous.
During the anticipated 29 month construction period the safety of local residents may be improved by limiting the speed to 30km an hour in the residential street blocks surrounding ‘the Tower’.
As one of the world’s leading healthcare providers, Ramsey Health Care’s LMPH has increasingly imposed itself on Gateshead residents but their only Community Investment directly into the Gateshead SAL is the sponsorship of a breakfast club at a local public school, presumably Wiripaang Public. As mentioned several times in the EIS, Gateshead is a low socio-economic community, which has above average rates of premature death. The EIS states Gateshead residents have higher than average chronic illnesses such as lung disease, heart disease ,diabetes and mental health needs and there is higher than average drug and alcohol problems. Educationally, it states there is a higher than average number of residents who failed to complete Year 10, Year 12 or post graduate qualifications. If this expansion is to go ahead, it’s time for Ramsey Health Care’s LMPH to ‘GIVE BACK ’! LMPH needs to support residents in Gateshead rather than sporting clubs and a fun run outside of the Gateshead community. In an attempt to improve the health, educational and lifestyle outcomes , LMPH could be doing a whole lot more, they might consider the following proactive ways to provide direct support for Gateshead residents :-
* sponsor programs at the Samaritans Tailored Youth&Family Services and Eastlakes Family Support Services,
* sponsor a mentoring program for Years 5-12 ‘at risk’ school students who are Gateshead residents,
* work with Gateshead schools to establish a LMPH funded program which aims to provide equity for those Gateshead students who otherwise would be unable to buy school uniforms, attend excursions, access to adequate technology, etc.
* establish a university scholarship fund to afford local Gateshead students the opportunity to gain tertiary qualifications, and
* sponsor Gateshead based sporting clubs such as Southern Beaches Rugby and Phoenix Charlestown Baseball Club, rather than sporting clubs based outside of the Gateshead community.
For several years now local residents have felt disenfranchised by the whole process of approvals and the conglomeration of development by LMPH. While the EIS states LMPH expansion will improve healthcare facilities, this comment is negated by the fact that most local residents cannot afford private health insurance and thereby have absolutely no access to LMPH healthcare facilities.
When LMPH consultants surveyed Gateshead residents for SIA forum and feedback they did not indicate how they tried to engage residents, did they door knock, telephone or merely letterbox drop hoping that it reached the owner of a rented property? Basing residents’ feelings and opinions about the impacts of LMPH on the views of just 1-6 residents is blatantly inadequate. The EIS mentions there will be a Community Consultative Committee which meets biannually, it is hoped this committee will include at least 2 Gateshead residents living in close proximity to LMPH. Ideally, the meeting agenda would be emailed and letter dropped to owners and renters in a 2 block radius of the hospital and the meeting would be open to these residents if they wished to have a voice on particular agenda items.
The EIS reports there is a shared pathway for cyclists to Oakdale Road. There is shop frontage and then a footpath which starts on the corner of Hughes Street that school students and their parents use to walk to Wiripaang and Hunter Sports High schools. Riding a bike along this stretch of footpath at peak school times would be difficult and possibly dangerous for both pedestrian and bike traffic. Oakdale Road is very steep and has dangerous gravel edges with no shared cycle path, it is also not lit at night as you head past the Bulls Garden Road intersection up to the Fernleigh Track. Feasibly, no one would use Fernleigh Track as a transport thoroughfare outside of daylight hours as there have been a number of reported violent attacks on this track during the day.
The EIS refers to the placement of ‘the Tower’ at the top of the hill as giving ‘greater legibility’, however, neighbouring residents may see it more as an imposing structure which dominates the neighbourhood, creating a feeling of solastalgia.
If Ramsey’s LMPH were actively ‘giving back’ to Gateshead residents through funding programs which directly addressed the high health, educational and lifestyle needs of the Gateshead locals, LMPH may be viewed as being part of the community rather than just imposing itself on it.
Before approving this extension NSW Planning needs to place conditions on Ramsey’s LMPH to liaise and contribute directly to the needs within this low-socioeconomic community- at present it’s social responsibility in terms of contributing to the local Gateshead community is paltry and inadequate. Please consider all my comments , especially in regards to traffic and residential parking.