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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-06-03 Daily Xml
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SOUTH ROAD UPGRADE

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:20): Today in my time in grievance I would like to report further on residents' concerns regarding the South Road underpass and the tram overpass. As I have said in this house previously, I believe that the residents who live around both the underpass and the proposed overpass have been extremely patient and very cooperative with the department and, wherever possible, have attended meetings which I call 'information sharing meetings' but which I think the department calls 'consultation'.

Late on Friday, I received a petition from one of the representatives of our action groups, SNAG (South Road Neighbourhood Action Group), who wanted to ensure that I was aware of the work that she had been doing and, in particular, to look at some of the issues that had been raised by those residents who live next to the now South Road underpass and behind the great wall which we have on South Road, as well—better known, I am pleased to say, as the Gallipoli Underpass.

The petition relates to the re-opening of Forest Street, Glandore and it is directed to the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure. As the petition is not in the proper form for parliament, I am unable to present it. However, it states:

Please find below signatures of concerned residents of Glandore, covering Grosvenor, Forest, Park, Wellington Streets & Glengyle Terrace who find they have been extremely inconvenienced due to the closure of Forest Street. Now with work to commence in May on the tram line overpass, we will become 'Land Locked' by the permanent closure of Forest Street.

As we feel strongly that it is possible to safely make a left turn only from Forest Street on to South Road, we see no logical reason for the permanent closure of Forest Street.

It is proven on the North Western side of Anzac Highway that the traffic can safely merge on to South Road.

We therefore request that consideration should be made for residents to have Forest Street open for left turn only on to South Road.

This petition, as I said, directed to the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure, has been signed by 80 residents who live very close to Forest Street.

In addition, a number of calls have been made to the Ashford electorate office regarding the tram overpass. I know that some changes need to be made for this overpass to take place and, in general, the community supports the overpass. However, many people are very distressed because they say that some 30 to 40 year old trees have been cut down by the department for transport to make way for what they think is the interim tram track, which will go along Norman and Glengyle terraces. While the residents of Glengyle Terrace and Norman Terrace are not very happy, they are understanding of the fact that they will have a tram going past their front yard temporarily. They are pretty unhappy that these interim arrangements, as they see it—or they hope—which will remain for some six months had to involve cutting down a number of trees.

People have been coming into the electorate office and ringing me up in tears because those trees were certainly the pride of that area and one of the beautiful features of that corridor. I think, overall, the residents have been extremely positive and have tried very hard to cooperate. We did have a contribution from one of our 80-odd year old residents the other day who lives near to where the tram overpass will be. She said that she was unhappy about the concept of a lift and she wanted me to ask the Minister for Transport (which I will do at an appropriate time) for escalators to and from the tram overpass. She said that, as much as she understands the need for a lift, she does not want to be stuck in a lift with someone she does not know—a stranger—particularly at night, and she would like the minister to consider escalators.

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