Friends of Eveleigh Submission on North Eveleigh Concept Plan

SUBMISSION - THE NORTH EVELEIGH CONCEPT PLAN

The Friends of Eveleigh have over the past two years had a strong community input with our actions to save the Large Erecting Shop in South Eveleigh. We have spent a lot of time travelling around and through the Redfern Waterloo Area and it is apparent to us that three things are missing from the North Eveleigh Concept Plan.

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

Traffic management has been forgotten when you look at the size of this development.

South and east traffic will pass the Erskineville Public School, through the edge of the Erskineville Shopping Centre and then use the narrow residential streets of the Erskineville Macdonaldtown region with most traffic forced under the Burren Street Macdonaldtown Station Bridge. It is unacceptable to allow large trucks to use these residential streets and we believe that this area will need to have weight restrictions imposed. Business and retail traffic using this route will have to travel the length of Wilson Street to access the eastern sector of the proposal, making Wilson Street a nightmare of cars and utilities. Yes, a business and retail section generates a lot of heavy traffic.

Traffic from the north and west will use City Road and again through residential streets. What a joke to suggest a Woolworths/Coles type supermarket in the proposal. Obviously the Traffic Managers have spent little time near the loading docks of supermarkets. Delivery trucks come in two sizes, big and bigger and it is the same for small and large stores. No, there is not one truck per store. Trucks carry specialised cargo - cold stores; fruit and vegetables; grocery packages; etc for a number of stores therefore many trucks will arrive. How will these vehicles access the site? North Eveleigh was the site of a Railway Workshop. Yes, there were materials brought in but in those days only small trucks were available. Anything large was brought in by rail.

Again, putting 2000 or even 1000 extra cars in Wilson Street - how will it cope?

What is needed is an Fully Independent Traffic Impact Report which includes Macdonaldtown, Darlington and Erskinville as well.

PARKING

Over 5500 new residents and office workers and visitors - where do they park. Retail - where do they park. There is insufficient parking in this proposal. Will the local streets will be used? The idea that most people will use the railway sounds good but in reality it will not happen.

What is needed is an Fully Independent Traffic Impact Report which includes Macdonaldtown, Darlington and Erskinville as well.

HERITAGE
The Eveleigh Railway Workshops were State Heritage Listed because of their important significance to the railway history and the social life of this great State we once had. Now little is left except for a few walls and the odd piece of token sculpturistic machinery placed in obscure positions. The new heritage experts have arrived, and now we have
only a few signs - that is our Colonial Architectural History - and that is all our NSW Labor politicians think of our heritage. The Chief Mechanical Engineers Building, reputed to be where Bradfield designed the Sydney Harbour Bridge previously was to be restored and used for community purposes. Why will this once magnificent building now become
residential unit? - money perhaps.

RailCorp passed over heritage items to the Australian Technology Park. Money was spent on consultants to identify the items. A token few were retained however much was scrapped. Currently two containers and a pile of machinery sit near Henderson Road inside the car park - will this heritage also end up as scrap metal? No you don’t hand your heritage over to a third party and say everything will be ok, it won’t. It is not ethical for the NSW Government to wash their hands of the heritage responsibility in this manner, particularly when this heritage belongs to the people of New South Wales - where is their stewardship.

Maybe it is also time for the community to have a good look at the Sydney University 2020 Master Plan. The Historic Heritage Paintshop is completely gone but then there is very little left in the current RWA proposal.

Therefore it is apparent that more community involvement and consultation is required by the Redfern Waterloo Authority for this proposal - the involvement of the City of Sydney Council is crucial as is a fully independent impact report on the overall repercussions on the surrounding communities.

R. Matthews
Secretary for Friends of Eveleigh
PO Box 381, Belrose West NSW 2085
Phone 0400 441 482