Residents’ concerns passed over

Leading the charge is local resident Julie Macken who says Clover Moore promised to address the issue years ago while in electioneering mode, but has firmly shut herself off from resident concerns ever since.

“Clover doorknocked the area in the lead-up to the last election, asking residents about their concerns,” Ms Macken says. “I raised the safety problem for Chippendale residents trying to cross City Road to access Victoria Park. At the time I would be trying to cross with my daughter and it is really dangerous. A pedestrian overpass would solve the problem. Clover said: ‘That sounds like a great idea. Get a petition together to show that there is a community need and I’ll pursue it.’”

Ms Macken duly gathered the petition, containing between 200 and 300 signatures of Chippendale residents, and sent it off to Ms Moore. “Note to self: make a copy,” she says drily now. “I didn’t photocopy the petition, I just sent it to Clover as she’d requested.”

Not hearing anything further Ms Macken assumed Ms Moore had been “rolled” on the issue, but later discovered this was not the case at all. “The idea had not even been considered and then Clover would not take any of my calls,” Ms Macken said.

Ms Macken says she followed up the issue with Greens councillor Chris Harris a couple of years back when she saw him at a community meeting. “I explained the situation and he is aware of how dangerous the spot is so said: ‘Let’s do a study.’”

Councillor Harris followed through and introduced a motion into Council at its May 2006 meeting. Supported by Labor councillor Verity Firth, he called for a report by Council planning staff on the possible design and construction of a pedestrian bridge spanning City Road on the north-eastern side of the City Road and Cleveland Street intersection to Victoria Park. The motion also called for the report to be placed on the agenda of the Planning, Development and Transport Commitee so that Chippendale residents would be able to participate in discussion of its findings.

And then a strange thing happened. With a sleight of hand, Independent councillor John McInerney proposed an amendment substituting the original motion with one noting the “desirability of improving access to Victoria Park for Chippendale and Redfern residents” but also “that there are significant costs, difficulties and constraints in providing a pedestrian bridge including space for wheelchair ramps and impacts to Victoria Park”.

The substituted motion called for recognition of a December 2005 resolution seeking a set of traffic lights and pedestrian crossing over City Road to Victoria Park at Myrtle Street. It further proposed that Council write to the RTA seeking the same from the north-eastern corner of the intersection of Cleveland Street and City Road to Victoria Park “as a valuable pedestrian access improvement prior to a new signalised crossing to Victoria Park at Myrtle Street.”

Council records of the meeting disclose that the Lord Mayor backed this change, as did all councillors except councillors Harris and Labor councillor Tony Pooley.

Councillor Harris explains that by arguing that Council is pursuing the possibility of a set of traffic lights along the strip between Broadway and Cleveland Street, the safety issue is being pushed into a dead end. “We’ve already had feedback from the RTA that the traffic impact of putting in a set of lights too close after cars turn into City Road from Broadway would not be feasible. The best solution is a pedestrian overpass.”

Labor’s mayoral candidate Meredith Burgmann is also familiar with the long-standing problem and has been active in trying to help. While still in her role as President of the NSW Legislative Council she says she wrote to the appropriate parties, including NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor and the Lord Mayor on behalf of residents. “I support an overpass and have done for the last few years,” she said. “Even a pedestrian crossing and lights would be better than the dangerous situation that’s there now.”

For Ms Macken the “most galling part of it all is that I have been taken for a mug. Clover got her head of planning to call me and he said: ‘You think you want an overpass, but you don’t. You wouldn’t use it.’ What Clover did is treacherous. She would not even consider it, and that’s the height of arrogance. She lied to us and what we are talking about here is just plain old-fashioned accountability.”

Photo: Ali Blogg - City Road near Victoria Park

Source: South Sydney Herald August 2008 www.southsydneyherald.com.au