Letter Regarding removal of trees without permission
Macdonaldtown
Residents Group, c/- 33 Albert St,
Erskineville 2043
30 August 2006
Chris Lock and Martin Halliday John Watkins MP
CEO/Director, Planning & Environment Minister for Transport
Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation Level 30, Governor Macquarie Tower
Locked Bag 6501 1 Farrer Place
St Leonards NSW 2065 Sydney NSW 2000
Dear sirs
We are writing to register our vehement objection to deliberate and unethical action by TIDC/Leighton outside the scope of approval for the Macdonaldtown Stabling Project.
In July, Leighton’s project
engineer Richard Scott emailed the City of Sydney’s arborist Matt Wareing claiming to
have Ministerial planning approval to remove all the trees along Leamington Lane in
order to build the approved noise wall.
No such approval for this tree removal existed.
Nowhere in the
Environmental Assessment (REF, Submissions Report or the Conditions of
Approval) was any tree removal along Leamington
Lane disclosed, sought or granted.
And yet, the Review of
Environmental Factors was obliged to identify and assess all environmental impacts. The
Conditions of Approval for this Project state construction must be carried out
consistent with the Environmental Assessment.
Residents therefore strongly
disagree this action, additional to the approved Environmental Assessment, is
‘consistent’ (to use Leighton’s term) with TIDC planning approval.
Protesting to Leighton’s
PR drew a response that boiled down to ‘we need to knock the trees down and we
will be knocking them down’.
We checked with Council as
to what ‘consultation’ (Leighton’s term) had taken place. Mr Wareing said he
had inferred from Mr Scott’s email that the tree removals were beyond the control
of Council’s usual Tree Removal Permit process*. He had no input into
Leighton’s assessment the trees had to go or consideration of other design solutions
from the perspective of preserving the trees. He is still awaiting requested
landscaping plans.
Mr Wareing alerted Mr Scott
and TIDC’s Brendon Baker to residents’ objections and sought a stay of
execution for just five of these trees - 8-10m tall poplar trees along a pedestrianised
section of Leamington Lane
- while authorisation could be verified and wall construction reviewed.
Mr Scott consulted his client. TIDC’s shameful direction to him was to proceed regardless and the trees were felled as scheduled during the rail possession of August 19-20, along with another unauthorised and unadvertised removal of a mature tree at the Burren St site entrance.
*The
Conditions of Approval also state: ‘These conditions do not displace any
obligation to obtain all other approvals and licences from all relevant
authorities required under any Act.’ Accordingly,
we expect Council to levy the appropriate fines for unauthorised tree removals.
This is why TIDC should
not have the power to self determine what is proposed, approved and executed in this
project. What is to stop TIDC from reneging
on promised mitigation measures if they prove too difficult or too costly? What other surprise environmental impacts are
lurking?
TIDC shirks
accountability. Residents view complaints to the TIDC infoline as futile when
these are redirected to Leighton for response, who disclaim ‘we’re just the
contractor’.
It is a Condition of Approval
that TIDC replicates all the vegetation and trees removed to build the temporary
access road.
Consistent with that, we
demand TIDC also replants five 400 litre poplars, or the equivalent, as they
were in Leamington Lane.
We are also concerned about the bulk of the noise wall supporting structure that necessitated the trees’ removal and require design visuals and landscaping plans. Eight months after approval, we are still waiting for repeatedly promised design visuals of the stabling exterior.
We will be looking for greater
scrutiny of construction activity and impacts by the Environmental Management
Representative on the project Community Liaison Group and the Environmental
Protection Agency to verify future work is, in fact, consistent with the
published and approved Environmental Assessment documents.
TIDC clearly has the
might, but not the right to do as it likes. The undersigned residents expect
Leighton and TIDC to act in a more principled way in future and do the right
thing when it comes to protecting our environment.
Yours sincerely
Gaynor Stanley
Gillian Mauchan
Simon Lillis
Trevor Ahearn
CC: Brendon
Baker, Jeremy Kidd, Caroline St Clair, Georgina Dorsett – TIDC
Jo
Robertson, Environmental Management Representative, CLG
Vince
Graham, Chief Executive Officer, Colin Coakley -Railcorp
Frank
Sartor MP, Minister for Planning, Carmel
Tebbutt MP
Barry
O’Farrell, Shadow Minister for Transport, Peter Debnam, Leader of the
Opposition
Sylvia
Hale, Greens MP, Chris Harris, Greens Councillor City
of Sydney
Dermot
O’Meara, Alice Pryke, Richard Scott - Leighton
Clover
Moore, Philip Jamieson, James Zanotto, Matt Wearing - City of Sydney
EPA