OVER 1,000 residents have joined community groups, business and environmental organisations, and Labor and Greens politicians to signing an Open Letter to Premier Mike Baird, Roads Minister Duncan Gay and Planning Minister Rob Stokes to demand a halt to work on St Peters Interchange and an inquiry into the whole WestCONnex project.
“This Open Letter shows that opposition to WestCONnex and the St Peters Interchange is deep and widespread, with not only Labor and Greens politicians on the same page, but environmental and business groups as well,” said WestCONnex Action Group (WAG) spokesperson Pauline Lockie.
“Less than 24 hours after we launched the letter online, over 1,000 residents signed it to join the call for Baird, Gay and Stokes to halt work on the St Peters Interchange, and hold the urgent review that will finally stop the secrecy around WestCONnex.”
The news comes on the same day Baird and Gay came to the St Peters interchange site to launch the start of tunneling for the New M5, and a scathing audit by the NSW Auditor-General on Sydney’s light rail project found it "suffered many of the same problems" as WestCONnex, including “underestimated costs and overestimated benefits".
“It is appalling that the Baird government is ploughing ahead with WestCONnex when there are so many red flags around the project – and when it will see drivers from western Sydney pay tolls of up to $25 a day to drive into inner-city traffic jams,” said Ms Lockie.
“The Baird government should not be tunnelling at the St Peters Interchange when the removal of WestCONnex’s Camperdown exit makes the traffic, air quality, noise and financial projections for this part of the tollway all wrong.
“That’s why this open letter calls on Baird, Gay and Stokes to finally do the right thing, halt work on the St Peters Interchange, and stop the secrecy around WestCONnex by holding an urgent review. And the rapid and widespread support the letter has received shows the voting public agrees,” said Ms Lockie.
Media contacts: Pauline Lockie 0414 470 106, Rhea Liebmann 0410 517 343
Open Letter: westconnexactiongroup.org.au/sign_the_open_letter_on_westconnex