RPA Hospital - Staff Carpark

Points of concern
1 increased traffic to small surrounding streets,
2 currently it is the only safe alternative as a cycle way
3 impact on Chinese embassy
4 Removal of childcare centre without appropriate alternative, with ENORMOUS stress and disruption to children and families
5 enforcing the use of cars rather than improving public transport links to the hospital (making parking a cheaper alternative than public transport)

My daughter's childcare centre is being demolished in order to build this carpark, which has not even yet been approved. I understand that a condition of approval was an alternative plan for the children. This did NOT occur. Children were pushed with 11 weeks notice to a private-equity backed private provider which does not have enough places for all the children locally, is further away, preventing breastfeeding during work hours, and with an additional 10 minute walk in each direction (ie 40 minutes/day), and more expensive. The centre which we are encouraged to send our children to was recently closed due to lack of enrolments due to not meeting accreditation standards! In addition, I have a problem with the building of a 9 story carpark, public transport should be improved instead. Finally, I am not publishing my name due to concerns about bullying. After raising concerns, individual staff members were targeted by Teresa Anderson and her chief of staff Debra Wilcox and told that they were in breach of the NSW health code of conduct (which was not the case). Therefore I am frightened for my job and employment in the future.

I strongly object to any removal of Nationally Accredited Childcare facilities in my local area, particularly when it is to be replaced with a car park. If the childcare centre is to be relocated, please ensure the service is able to remain open for the full duration of construction of a new premises, and then relocated into the new premises after construction is complete. Early childhood education is important to children's health and development, and essential for local families who rely on these services. This development is not in the best interests of the local community.

Quality local childcare that opens before 7am is hard enough to find. Closure of this service will hurt my family and our ability to meet our financial commitments. Please ensure that this childcare facility remains open, and if it is to move premises please ensure that the new site is built BEFORE the old site is turned into a car park.

I object to the development on this site because the hospital will be losing essential childcare services. Child care services are already overstretched in the Inner West. Although the hospital states that it has found childcare spots for children in another centre it is not yet clear that they will have capacity for all children. Families are being diverted from a not for profit childcare centre to a Profit childcare business. The hospital has said that they will build another childcare centre in 2 to 3 years but I feel strongly they should build that centre first as there is no guarantee that funding will be allocated for a new centre in 2 to 3 years time. The hospital undertook no consultation with stakeholders of the childcare centre prior to making these plans.

Health Issues : the ramp on the eastern side of the proposed car park is approximately 10 metres from the side of our house. Hundreds of cars arriving will disgorge fumes and particles into our windows on the side of our house, which are at approximately the same height as the ramp, and onto our balcony, thus requiring us to cease to use our balcony and to close our windows at all times.

This problem will affect every house in the western end of Fowler Street. Each house is a terrace about 3 metres wide.

No shadow diagram indicates the effect the 9 storey building will have on our solar enjoyment. If the current four storey building impacts our house during half of the year, then a 9 storey building will prevent our enjoyment of the short period of sun we get in the mornings on the side of our house and in the back yard.

This will also prevent us growing food in the back yard.

In the winter, cars using the car park early in the morning keep their headlights on while traversing the various floors. These lights will be continually shining in our side windows, requiring shutters of curtains to be closed. This problem, and the noise problem from cars queuing in the recently narrowed and improved Church Street will exacerbate the noise problem and the fumes/particle problems.

This latter difficulty could be obviated by having a solid wall on the Church Street side of the building, rather than a lattice type front, and also by setting the ramp further back from the edge of Church Street.

The height of the building and the problems this will cause to our enjoyment of sunlight could be made less by putting at least some floors of the car park underground. There seems to be no difficulty in doing this as there is not rock to be dug out according to the report, and is mainly soft shale.

General issues :
There is also the problem of skateboarders, who use the public car park further down to the south of of the Queen Mary building during most nights, but especially on the weekend. They will no doubt be using this new building, with the associated noise. A security guard could prevent this from occurring.

There is no need for such a large car park in this area. The public car park is never full. It would be a lot cheaper to subsidise the staff at RPA for their parking fees in the existing building.

It will be interesting to see how long the car park remains only for RPA staff and if/when it becomes another commercial car park
If that happens then of course the problems set out above become 24 hour problems, 365 days of the year.

I am a resident of 14 Fowler street. I am 71 years of age and an asthmatic..

The car exhaust fumes from the proposed car park will drift into my residence with an easterly or north easterly breeze.

The car lights early in the morning in the winter, and after dark, will shine directly into my bedroom window.

The balcony I use will be unusable.

The noise will be ever present..

Church Street, newly narrowed, will not be able to cope with the extra traffic.

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A car park over the need of a child care facility fails to meet the needs of rpah workers as families. Whilst parking may be an issue, it is one which can be resolved through public transport and other transport options. Child care supports continued breastfeeding for women returning to work, flexibility, time and financial needs of women and men needing to return to work.
I propose that a child care centre be built prior to the car park. This minimises disruption to families working at rpah and demonstrates and support of family rights.
The limited time frame provides to families and the inadequate responses of rpah have been inadequate to say the least. It was delivered in a disrespectful manner with no consultation with the families and rpah staff.

It is disgraceful what RPAH executives are doing to their staffs. The executives have played their game well. Working on the anxiety of parents who have only been given a mere 11 weeks to find childcare in the middle of the year. Not only are staff members worried about their children. They are anxious about getting to work as well.

I believe there should be a better way. There are other lands which the executives refused to consider to build the carpark with the childcare incoporated to it. This current application is only for a car spaces of less than 1000. The old carpark holds 1500 and we have staffs on 4 years wating list. Please explain what will a 1000 car parking do? We currently pay a $7 per day for parking in a city area. Its not as if we do not have parking. And do explain who will lose out on their existing parking when the new carpark is built. Im sure its not the executives.

Please take the opportunity in designing this building to install solar panels on the rooftop (doing double duty as car protection awnings) or on the north facing facade. The energy generated by such a structure would power the lighting and elevators of the building itself and any excess returned to the grid would reduce hospital operating costs. Similarly, water runoff collection could be incorporated to provide water to nearby building such as Queen Mary or Marie Bashir, even if only for garden maintenance. It's very disappointing in 2016 to see a building of this size and position not appearing to incorporate any sustainability features.
I support the need for a new carpark, given the issue with the existing one, but think staff should also be encouraged to use alternative transport where possible. Better bus services to Missenden Rd would be a good start. The 412 is irregular and unreliable. Also lobbying parliament to reconsider a metro stop is included at the University/RPA site and not just at Waterloo. Why can't we have both? This is another shortsighted action by State government.
Thanks

Whilst i think this is a great idea i would also hope that this will also cater for people visiting patients and not another money grab.

My wife had a baby at the center and i paid over $400 in parking which is ridiculous.

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The NSW Department of Planning and Environment is remiss if it approves this application, which is a travesty of 21st-century town planning. Inner suburbs like Camperdown should rely on public transport; large carparks are unwelcome.

I am aware that NSW has policies to develop public transport and also to develop roads including Westconnex. These policies are contradictory. There should be no roadbuilding or large carparks in such a dense area. Instead, policies should apply travel demand management.

I attach a copy of a travel demand management plan for Perth which was released by the Western Australia government last week. It looks forward to Perth's population reaching 3.5 million. Sydney reached that figure some time ago; our policies should be ahead of Perth's rather than behind. I comment the Perth plan to your attention.

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Inner West Council submission on the RPA Hospital Multi-storey Staff Carpark.

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