27/11/13
H.E.A.L. Northern Beaches strongly objects to the construction of the new Northern Beaches Hospital on the above proposed site in Frenchs Forest for the following reasons.
1.) DECENTRALISED HEALTHCARE AND PUBLIC COMMUNITY HOSPITALS
Many studies around the world show that the overall outcomes for preventative health, recovery and healing are better for decentralised public community hospitals.
We believe that the two existing public hospitals in Mona Vale and Manly have been serving the health needs of the Northern Beaches communities well; and that they will be providing adequate services for everyone if:

A) A new state-of-the-art public hospital will be built at Mona Vale.
B) Manly's heritage buildings are retained and renovated as well as the others rebuilt and modernised to provide basic public medical services: Emergency, obstetrics, maternity, age-care, orthopedics, mental health.
C) A state-of-the-art, 5-grade hospital could be built on the Mona Vale site
which is much more accessible for most Northern Beaches residents and its many visitors (against the traffic flow most of the time) than the above proposed Frenchs Forest site.
D) With a very high proportion of aging residents, young families 6 to 7 million visitors per year from all over Sydney, we will need public hospital services in publicly run hospitals.

2) FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS:
No documentation has been released showing a comprehensive cost benefit analysis comparing a redevelopment of Mona Vale versus the construction of a new hospital on the Frenchs Forest site. Required new infrastructure expenditure and public transport planning should accompany this proposal for the public to come to an informed opinion.
3) TRAFFIC ISSUES:
Traffic assessment studies undertaken in 2009 show that roads surrounding the Frenchs Forest hospital site, including the major northern beaches arteries of the Wakehurst Parkway & Warringah Road, are already at or beyond their planned capacity. For example, it is not uncommon to take 30 minutes to drive the 3.5 km journey from the Skyline Shops to Forestville via the hospital site.
And with our rising population (e.g. there is talk of major new developments around the Warriewood, Ingleside and Belrose area,) these roads will become more congested, even without a new hospital. More people = more traffic.
A new hospital at Frenchs Forest will generate enormous amounts of additional traffic - ambulances, staff, patients, visitors, suppliers and waste removal services will all need to get in and out of the hospital. The location will attract people not only from the Northern Beaches, but from other increasingly heavily populated areas, such as Chatswood, who would normally go to the North Shore hospital.
We believe that traffic will be brought to a standstill, particularly during the morning and afternoon rush-hour periods. It is hard to imagine how an ambulance will be able to get through this traffic in an emergency!
While the site has already been selected and considerable work on the proposal has already been undertaken, a detailed traffic impact study has yet to be completed. The NRMA recently wrote to Brad Hazard outlining what work should to be undertaken (see attached letter). We believe this lack of planning is a major oversight!
The hospital will also require substantial space for parking, and helicopters will also need access.
Massive road works have been suggested, including new flyovers, underpasses, traffic lights and link roads as well as flood mitigation on the Wakehurst Parkway. A rapid bus transit system has also been discussed, but again no formal plans have been released.
While the proposed upgrades may help assist flows around the site - it will do nothing to reduce traffic volumes - at best the traffic bottlenecks will simply move to other nearby locations.
Following is a recent article from the Manly Daily which discusses this issue
http://origin.manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/hospital-dream-may-be-nightmare/
See also attachment letter from NRMA

4) DESTRUCTION OF LOCAL AMENITY.
* High impact facility superimposed onto quiet family- friendly residential environment.
* Towering 10-storey building, overshadowing neighbourhood
* Constant noise pollution from helicopters, ambulances and cars
* Light pollution at night
* Loss of bushland and its air cleaning function
* Overflow parking in residential street
* Air pollution from increased traffic
* Possible loss of next door high school, due to high impact

5) ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:
The planned hospital will destroy two wildlife corridors plus the most southern, well preserved, good sized patch of an endangered ecological community: 'Duffys Forest Ecological Community' plus roosting and foraging habitat of a threatened species.
a) The north-south corridor is of particular importance as it connects the Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment with the Manly Dam Catchment area, which leads on to Garigal West National Park.
b) The northwest corridor, which has been already very badly reduced in width and extends from the Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment area to Forestville Park, further extending into Garigal West National Park.
Wildlife corridors are becoming increasingly important. Many species of little birds migrate regularly annually for several hundreds of kilometres and they need some remnant bush areas to find shelter. Other species, flora and fauna are already affected by climate change and need to migrate to find a new ecological niche. Large scale corridors are restored within the 'travelling stock routes' program to help these migrations. Here one highly utilised and fully functioning wildlife corridor and another partially functioning corridor are planned to be choked up with high rise, high noise, constantly lit up development. This will annihilating both corridor functions.
When the fencing of the site was installed the number of swamp wallabies killed on the road increased dramatically. Animals tried to cross over but had no shelter to hide before or after crossing Warringah Road.


The Duffy's Forest Ecological Community on the proposed hospital site is in very good condition and only the old housing block sites and some road border areas are affected by weeds. The forest still contains huge old logs, probably from times of Mr French's logging explorations and these logs offer a habitat that is not matched in the adjacent catchments. It could easily provide prime habitat for spotted tailed quolls. Fresh scats of a spotted tailed quoll have been recently discovered in the Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment, an important section of the Frenchs Forest Wildlife Corridor. This animal is our greatest natural carnivore; it is endangered and has a huge foraging range. The spotted tailed quoll has been dismissed in the report as not needing this habitat.
Quote from Smith&Smith Ecological Consultants `Review' (see attachment):
`The proposed offset is grossly inadequate. The offset site contains no Duffys Forest Ecological Community (contrary to claims in the Environmental Impact Statement), nor any other endangered ecological community; it contains no Powerful Owl habitat (although it does contain habitat for two other threatened species); and it falls well short of the offsetting requirements calculated using the BioBanking Assessment Methodology credit calculator, which is the standard method in NSW for objectively assessing biodiversity impacts and offsetting requirements. No offset is proposed for the impact of the proposed hospital on the important wildlife corridor value of the site.'

What we do know:
The proposed hospital will be up to 10 storeys ( 40 metres) high and will be built on a site elevated 152-164 metres above the sea level. It will be an eyesore from Palm Beach to the CBD, to the Blue Mountains and to the eastern suburbs (Bondi).
The residual risk for the local amenity is foreshadowed to be significant and high. For transport and accessibility again a significant and high residual risk and its manageability is classified as substantial. (Plans have not even been prepared dealing with any of this problem, still, but the forest is to be logged!)
A MATTER OF URGENCY
The staged approach government planners propose means: DESTRUCTION OF FRENCHS FOREST is about to happen: EARLY 2014. This will be well before construction in 2015 is scheduled to commence. We request that the corridor /bushland function is maintained for as long as possible. We further REQUEST THAT THE CLEARING OF THE SITE WILL BE HELD OFF UNTIL DEFINITE PLANS FOR THE HOSPITAL AND INFRASTRUCTURE ESPECIALLY ROADS AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT are finalised, approved and funded.
We request that the consultation period be extended by 4 weeks and that a public hearing be conducted, as no comprehensive community consultation has been undertaken.

Conclusion:
We believe the existing Mona Vale Hospital is a far more suitable location for a new level-5 hospital because it has plenty of room to grow and it has relatively good transport links. Most of the time people will be travelling against the main traffic flows particularly in the morning rush hour, when traffic tends to be at its worst. And people from Chatswood will continue to go to Royal North Shore. We also believe the location by the sea is highly conducive to patient recovery.
Last but not least, there would be no destruction of environmentally sensitive areas if the new hospital were to be built on the Mona vale Hospital site.

H.E.A.L. Northern Beaches

My submission against replacing Frenchs Forest with the proposed "Northern Beaches Hospital"

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/55662298/SSI%205982%20Northern%20Beaches%20Hospital%20-%20Tony%20Backhouse%20final.pdf

The attached .pdf is the same content also

Tony Backhouse

I am concerned about a number of issues with the proposed Hospital;

1. 10 storeys is out of character in the area and will cause overshadowing and loss of views.
2. The noise and traffic congestion relating to construction will impact negatively on those residents in the surrounding areas.
3. The local streets will be impacted long term by extra noise, traffic and loss of parking.
4. The positioning of the hospital means it is too far for residents from the upper half of the beaches area.

I object to the construction of a hospital at Frenchs Forest. The 10 story building is too high and will cause over shadowing and be an eyesore on a hill top location. Loss of bushland is significant and will negatively impact local wildlife and endangered forest types. Overflow of parking on local streets and increased traffic on local streets is of major concern.

Duplicaiton of services already provided at Royal North Shore hospital and Mona Vale Hospitals is also of concern.

Local roads are already beyond their capacity already and increased local traffic will only make this worse at thsi known bottleneck.

Recommendatrion is for increasing services at Mona Vale hospital.

The hospital is a gross overdevelopment of the facilty on this site and requires to be reconsidered and down scaled. The hospital proposed has little to offer the general public being a private based institution with minimum public beds and services.

The roads and infrastructure will not cater for a hospital of magnitude which is being pressed for by a group of vested interests mainly from the medical fraternity as opposed the public demand; hence the pressure to maximise and over develop the site.

Consideration needs to be given to reducing the size of the hospital and a complete redevelopment and enlargement of the Mona Vale site.

No weight has been given to concerns of the community and the damage this development will do to the area and the environment in relation to congestion, water catchment, and infrastructure. With regard to the latter point any improvements planned for the Wakehurst Parkway and interchange at Warringah Road wil be negated once this site is developed to such a size.

It beggars belief such a project could be contemplated against wishes of the majority of local residents.

I oppose the State Significant Infrastructure Application No 5982 for a 10-storey
Northern Beaches Hospital concept proposal and destruction of endangered forest:

1) ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
· Destruction of irreplaceable wildlife corridors between Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment (which extends to the Hawkesbury and beyond).
and (a) Manly Dam (b) Forestville Park (Garigal National Park)
· Destruction of the largest southern stand of endangered Duffy's Forest Ecological
Community, with unique diversity of flora
· Loss of habitat for wildlife, e.g. swamp wallabies, sugar gliders, powerful owls
· 'Environmental Offsets': destruction of one unique area of native forest and wildlife
cannot be remedied by preserving bushland in another unconnected location

2) DESTRUCTION OF LOCAL AMENITY.
· 10-storey building with overshadowing
· Eyesore on hilltop location
· Loss of bushland and its air cleaning function
· Air pollution from increased traffic
· Noise pollution from helicopters, ambulances and cars
· Overflow parking in residential streets
· Light pollution at night

3 ) TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORT PROBLEMS
· Wakehurst Parkway and Warringah Road already at or beyond capacity
· Wakehurst Parkway can be closed by flooding
· Intersection at hospital site gridlocked every day
· Population growth on Northern Beaches (e.g Warriewood) will increase problems
· Substantial additional traffic (expert's estimate 10,000 per day): ambulances, staff,
patients, visitors, suppliers, waste disposal...etc.
· No public transport planned

4 ) HEALTH SERVICES DISTRIBUTION
· Provision of public beds insufficient
· Private hospitals focus on profits, not provision of health care for all
· Centralising for administrative convenience does not provide health care where needed
· Loss of existing public community hospitals at Mona Vale and Manly
· Proximity of new 10-storey hospital to newly rebuilt Royal North Shore Hospital
(duplication of services)

I request that Application 5982 be referred to PAC (Planning Assessment Committee)

Hi
There are perfectly established hospitals on the Northern beaches. Rebuilding, refurbishing or expanding will not further impact our local flora and fauna.
To build a hospital in the middle of a pristine environment would have a huge environmental impact on the area and surrounding areas such as;
*Irreplaceable wildlife corridors.
*Destruction of the largest southern strand of Duffys Forest Ecological community
*Loss of habitat for a huge number of species.
*Destruction of a unique area which cannot ever be balanced out by any other means i.e. this corridor links other areas therefore it has far reaching consequences!
From a provisions point of view how will a private hospital (who rely on profit) serve the public?
* Not enough public beds will be provided
*This will also cause increased traffic to one central location rather than keeping our hospital resources sped out.

None of this plan makes sense at all! Please see this from a animal, people and ecological perspective. Please rebuild Manly and Monavale hospitals instead! Lord knows the block that Monavale is on surely has enough room for 2 more hospitals alone!
Best regards.

My main concern for the Northern Beaches Hospital is that the likelihood of health & safety risks/fatalities for patients, ambulance drivers, pedestrians and general motorists will increase.

Why?
Because the underdeveloped road systems with 1-lane corridors (Wakehurst Parkway etc) that approach the new proposed hospital site, are already congested, and if ambulances have to travel further than Mona Vale hospital (for Palm Beach residents), this increases the risk of patients being worse-off or `dead on arrival', because of the increased time it took to access life-saving services.
Also the impact on the motorists who have to move aside to allow ambulances to pass, will often make them go off onto `shoulder-less' roads, which increases the risk of accidents for them or to pedestrians walking on footpaths!
Once the ambulance arrives at the congested intersections of Wakehurst/Warringah roads, delays will occur for the ambulance to enter the site, increasing likelihood of patients being worse-off.

With regard to the helicopters, has there been `impact studies' done on the disruption of `visibility' (flying debris) and concentration of drivers (overwhelmed by noise and looking at helicopter and NOT the road), where helicopters are hovering only 6 stories above major traffic areas? Any reasonable human being would agree there will be an increased likelihood of motorist accidents due to disruption of helicopters around this site in an already highly congested traffic zone.

Finally, it would be an abhorrent act of any government, to make a decision not to upgrade already existing hospitals (Mona Vale and Manly) because they valued the real estate more than the lives of the people, who have faster access to these hospitals, than to a new hospital in a bad location where they may have to die to get there?

I am against building Northern Beaches Hospital in Frenchs Forest:
1. Mona Vale & Manly hospitals are already built but have been allowed to run down - there is no need to waste ratepayers money supporting a new hospital if these are maintained. Mona Vale especially is well positioned for people on the peninsular, and in an area that doesn't pose traffic problems or intrude in surrounding communities.

2. I had reason to attend RNSHospital emergency 3 times this year; it is only 1/2hr away from Frenchs Forest; it was modernised & opened in Dec 2012; half-way through 2013, five wards were closed due to lack of funds - NSW is already financially struggling to meet basic commitments, what irresponsibility to try & support a new hospital when Mona Vale is already built and RNSH is now state-of-the-art.

3. Several private hospitals already operate in the peninsular.

4. The land is adjacent to a Public School with hundreds of children coming & going across roads to catch buses, or picked up by parents waiting in cars.

5. Traffic congestion on highways in this area, is already a problem - especially Wakehurst Parkway, which is frequently flooded, Forestway & Warringah Road which will be a nightmare if hospital traffic is added.

6. The proposed removal of bushland in Frenchs Forest will be an ecological loss - it's one of the few remaining natural areas along Warringah Road.

7. The peaceful residential area of Frenchs Forest will become choked with traffic, noise and air pollution.

the proposed site for this hospital is totally wrong,
listen to the people