Council asks for ministerial intervention to break GreenWay impasse
Thursday, 15 August 2019
Inner West Council is seeking the urgent assistance of Transport Minister Andrew Constance and the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Rob Stokes to cut through the bureaucratic inertia that has significantly delayed the delivery of the GreenWay.
Delays from multiple State Government departments have already held up the completion of the GreenWay by at least a year, and are putting Government funding for the project at risk.
The GreenWay is a nearly six-kilometre environmental and active transport route through the inner west, linking the Iron Cove with the Cooks River.
Council last night unanimously supported a Mayoral Minute outlining the range of challenges and delays that have imperilled the project.
Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne has called on the Government agencies, Sydney Trains, Transport for NSW and Sydney Water, to lift their game and finally sign off on the approvals required to allow the project to go ahead.
“Council has allocated full funding for the project and adopted the GreenWay master plan. We are now waiting on Sydney Trains to provide landowner consent to enable the project to proceed, but they are refusing to do so,” said Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne.
“We have written repeatedly to all agencies involved seeking a solution to the impasse.
“Despite the urgent need to progress the project, they have refused to provide the consent, refused to my meeting request and refused to take up my offer of discussing the issue over the phone.
“If Sydney Trains continue to drag its feet the GreenWay project is in real danger of going completely off the rails,” he said.
Persistent delays from Sydney Trains and Transport for NSW have already forced work on the GreenWay to be postponed for 12 months, as the construction must be undertaken in the summer months to minimise impacts on migratory threatened species along part of the route.
The delays are also placing State Government funding in jeopardy, which must be used within set timeframes.
“This is a ludicrous situation - one agency isn’t talking to another Government agency and the GreenWay project is in danger of being derailed by this finger-pointing.
“What we need is one person in Government with ministerial authority to take charge of the project and get the approvals done,” said Mayor Byrne.
In 2016, Council entered into a partnership with Transport for NSW to deliver the GreenWay missing links from Parramatta Road south to the Cooks River.
Council allocated more than $25 million to this project over the next three years, including more than $18 million of State Government funding.
For further information, please contact John Roper on 0435 963 787.