WestConnex - M4 East Upgrade

Please refer attached submission.

I have uploaded a letter

Part one of A People's M4 East EIS

Please find attached my submission in response to the the EIS for M4 East Westconnex.

I and my husband live in , which is a left turn off Parramatta Road a few blocks east of where the WestConnex tunnel's outlet will be.
Haberfield is a heritage conservation area, and has long been a generally quiet suburb. Many of the residents of our road (and of Haberfield) are elderly Italians who have lived here for decades, and who are unlikely to feel empowered enough to make submissions such as this one. Many other residents are young couples with small children.
So, I am writing this submission on behalf of myself and my husband, and also on behalf of other Haberfield residents.
Many of the enormous number of cars and trucks that emerge from the tunnel will want to avoid the busy Parramatta Road that they encounter by turning left soon after they exit from the tunnel and travelling through local Haberfield streets instead.
I understand that Chandos St will be blocked off at Parramatta Road during the construction phase of WestConnex.
I request that the other relatively minor roads that are a left turn off Parramatta Road after the tunnel's outlet, including St Davids Road, also be at least partially blocked off permanently to prevent entry of traffic from Parramatta road.

Submission attached

Please refer to submission attached.

To whom it may concern,

I object to the Westconnex East project on the basis of inadequate consideration of `integrated transport improvements'.

The Westconnex East EIS describes the project as an `integrated package of transport improvements' which include `complementary enhancements to the existing road network, a redesign of bus services and facilities, improved access to rail stations, and upgrades to cyclist and pedestrian facilities'. In particular, the EIS argues that the Westconnex East project `complements' several key New South Wales Transport planning documents. These include:
* Sydney's Rail Future: Modernising Sydney's Trains (Transport for NSW 2012b) regarding the need to `improve the Western Rail Line, which runs parallel to the project'.
* Sydney's Bus Future: Simpler, faster, better bus services (Transport for NSW 2013a). WestConnex would assist in introducing a bus rapid transit route along Parramatta Road in the long term, by providing an alternative route for longer distance trips (the project) along the M4 and Parramatta Road corridor. Once in place, this bus rapid transit route could be upgraded to light rail, to respond to the increased transport demand associated with population growth along Parramatta Road (Transport for NSW 2013a).
* Sydney's Light Rail Future: Expanding public transport, revitalising our city (Transport for NSW 2012c). The longer term WestConnex may allow road space to be reallocated on City Road or Parramatta Road to allocate space to public transport in the University of Sydney corridor, the area that services the Universities to the west of Sydney CBD. Four light rail routes linking to Parramatta CBD are under investigation. One of these would connect the CBD to Sydney Olympic Park, running parallel to the existing M4 and the project to Burwood/Strathfield.
* Sydney's Cycling Future (Transport for NSW 2013b). Westconnex East will `maintain and, where feasible, improving network connectivity'.
* Sydney's Walking Future (Transport for NSW 2013c) Westconnex East would `improve urban amenity and road safety, contributing to an improved pedestrian environment'.

However the `complementary' and `integrated character of the Westconnex East project remains ill-defined and unquantified. These inadequacies reflect braider debates about the poor quality of planning and lack of independent oversight. These inadequacies were highlighted by the NSW Auditor General's 2014 Performance Audit of Westconnex. These inadequacies have also been highlighted at the Federal level.
* Recent Australian Productivity Commission and Treasury Inquiries suggest: `Decisions are often based on inadequate and non-transparent information and assessment of the costs and benefits of road projects'; `Roads are the least reformed of all infrastructure sectors, with institutional arrangements around funding and provision remaining much the same as they were 20 years ago' (Harper et al 2015; Productivity Commission 2014).
* An `Australian Infrastructure Audit' by the independent federal advisory body Infrastructure Australia highlighted the inconsistent `use and transparent reporting of cost benefit analyses'. It argued that, while `market reforms have significantly improved the efficiency and competitiveness of the energy sector and more recently the telecommunications sector... [there is] a pressing need to commence the task of moving towards alternative institutional and governance arrangements in the roads sector' (Infrastructure Australia 2015).

The costs of the Westconnex East project are enormous. They relate to economic costs as well as the destruction of heritage, biodiversity, greenspace, habitat and residential amenity. The inadequate analysis of the `complementary' and `integrated' public transport components of the Westconnex East project undermine the project's claims relating to the reduction of congestion, pollution and greenhouses gas emissions.

Westconnex East does not represent an `integrated' or complementary approach to urban transport. It is a massive, poorly conceived, stand-alone roads project that does not adequately address issues relating to environmental impact management or cost-benefit ratio.

Cameron White
3 Hopetoun Street Camperdown, NSW, 2050

Please see attached submission.

I object to the project. If it is to go ahead I seek:
- better monitoring of traffic and pollution in the Haberfield and Ashfield area.
- more active and public transport options.
- a higher stack with filteration and located away from schools, childcare centres and homes for the elderly.

Please see attachment.

I attach my objections in the attached pdf

Attached is my submission and appeal with respect to the planned construction work that will take years of construction works on Underwood Road surrounding my property and the direct significant adverse effects that it will have on our daily lives, health and property.

see uploaded letter

Please be advised that I do not support this WestConnex plan. The entire project is poorly planned and ill conceived. My 4 Page Submission explains in further detail my reasons for this view.

The WestConnex will destroy homes and communities. It is making hundreds of people homeless and the homes of those that remain uninhabitable.

The WestConnex will pollute the inner west.
No air monitoring near the site of the smoke stacks is happening now, so it is not possible to say, as Duncan Gay does, that air quality will be better.
It is clear that the smoke stacks will drop fine particulates, which are proven to cause cancer, on homes and child care centres.

The government has no right in a democracy to build this road because:
There is no business case for the WestConnex
Contracts have been signed before the EIS submissions have been considered.
The EIS itself shows only a six minute improvement in travel times.
Duncan Gay is contemptuous of inner west residents, describing as "inner city trendies".

Duncan Gay is incompetent. The attached article "Tibby Cotter Bridge damned by audit" shows that Duncan Gay lacks the planning skills to build a bridge. He is not competent to assess and build roads.

Please find attached submission query information

Notes refer to the uploaded PDFs:

Submission lodged in file attachment 1.

The referenced letter to the submission is lodged in file attachment 2.

Submission attached

Residual Land '14' Chandos St Ashfield :

Ref : Volume 1A page 181, Figure 5.33 Property acquisition and residual land - Map 5 , Figure 2.9.

Figure 5.33 indicates area '14' as residual land and should become green space for the block of units at 98 Chandos St.

The artist impression in Figure 2.9 is inaccurate as the area and drive way infront of 98 Chandos is private land (left of figure) and will be fenced/walled along parramatta road and gated from parramatta road to 90 Chandos St.

This residual land will be bordered by 90 Chandos St and the replacement drive way for 98 Chandos St (to be built) which will have an electric locking gate. As access to the this residual land will only be by the residence of 98 Chandos St it is practical to incorporate it into the garden and landscape of 98 Chandos St.