Western Harbour Tunnel targeting Balmain Leagues Club site

STATEMENT BY DARCY BYRNE
MAYOR OF THE INNER WEST

Late yesterday I was contacted by NSW Roads and Maritime Services to inform me that it is likely that the Government will seek to compulsorily acquire the former Balmain Leagues Club site, on Victoria Road, Rozelle, as a construction site for the proposed Western Harbour Tunnel. 

This would be a terrible decision, which would have disastrous consequences for the Balmain Tigers, the Rozelle community and the taxpayers of NSW. 

A new owner of the site has prepared plans for a redevelopment that could see the Tigers return to Rozelle. 

If the Government snatches the property and uses it as a “dive site” for tunnelling, this development will never proceed and the Tigers will never return to their spiritual home.

In addition to the 4 massive smoke stacks and enormous motorway interchange already slated for Rozelle as part of the Stage 3 of WestConnex, this would see all the spoil from the Western Harbour Tunnel being removed and trucked out on local streets.

The impact on Rozelle Public School, adjacent to Victoria Road, would be devastating and completely unacceptable. 

This Government seems intent on poisoning the local environment of the Rozelle community. 

With a rezoning of 12 storey residential development and a shopping mall already approved, the taxpayers of NSW would also have to foot the bill for massive, unprecedented compensation costs. 

The planning of the WestConnex and Western Harbour Tunnel projects has been marked by ineptitude and secrecy at every turn. 

If carried out, this decision would be the most reckless yet.