ALERT: Lifting of Road Reservation that had threatened inner-city Urban Conservation Area

The resurrection of the F6 motorway corridor from St Peters to Sutherland had re-awakened long standing link road proposals that threatened a number of National Trust listed Urban Conservation Areas included Enmore, Annandale and Dacey Garden Suburb at Daceyville.

On the 17th of March, 2006 the State Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal and the Member for Marrickville Carmel Tebbutt announced the lifting of much of the road reservation through Enmore.

Support the National Trust in its campaign to save these suburbs and to encourage government to support and fund a better balance between private (non-renewable fuel based) transport and ecologically friendly public transport.

The Trust is a non government, community based heritage conservation organ-isation formed in 1945 with 26,000 members in New South Wales.

1. Register on-line at the National Trust website to assist with letterbox drops or to provide help with the campaign.

2. Lobby your local councillors and members of parliament - check at the Trust website for contact details and for more information.

3. Show your support by attend public information meetings and rallies which will be publicised on the Trust’s website.

4. Consider becoming a member of the National Trust and with you membership fees you will be making a direct contribution to the campaign.

Sydney’s motorway schemes date from the 1940s and are sixty years out of date

In 1972, the Trust opposed the North-Western and Western Expressways which would have cut a swathe through Glebe demolishing 800 homes and “Lyndhurst”) to the steps of the Sydney Town Hall. At that time, 33 years ago, it was stated: -

“In the late 1930s the NSW Housing Commission publicised a map of Sydney showing areas shaded black. These ‘Black Areas’ were parts of Sydney which the experts considered ‘not Fit for Human Habitation’ to be demolished and cleared in any way possible. The ‘Black Areas’ included most of the inner-city suburbs (Paddington being one of the ‘blackest’).

A few years later, in the 1940s, a vast system of radial expressways was planned for Sydney. These proposed expressways were seen as having the desirable effect of clearing the “Black Areas” (for example, one-sixth of the suburb of Glebe).”

The expressways now proposed are those same routes first put on planning scheme maps in the 1940s with the logic of that time and they still appear on Council planning schemes to the present day.

It has been recognised around the world for many years that motorways quickly run out of capacity and that extensions merely transfer congestion to other locations. In fact motorways actually attract additional vehicles to the detriment of cheaper, more energy efficient and environmentally friendly public transport systems.

Government motorway construction authorities and the advocates of motorways will argue that just one more link road or one more off ramp will solve the problem.

As a city, Sydney is “addicted” to motorways. With any addiction you have to first recognise that there is a problem.

Compared with other world-class cities Sydney’s public transport system is suffering from virtual collapse and has for many years been severely underfinanced compared with motorways and roadways.
The entire CityRail network could be operated on greenpower, doubling the use of this environmentally friendly energy source for just a 5% increase in fares.

A consortium stands ready to build a fast (11 minutes) rail service from Parramatta to Sydney CBD which would complement not compete with the existing rail service. Sydney originally had one of the world’s most effective and extensive tram systems which was scrapped in the mistaken belief that buses were more flexible and efficient.

Light rail services in Sydney and suburbs would have far less negative impacts on our historic inner suburbs than motorways and would not be dependent on ever diminishing and more expensive oil-based fuels. The National Trust calls on both local and the state government to lift these outmoded road reservations and to begin seriously considering the re-establishment of an extensive, environmentally friendly public transport system.