What is Council doing about WestConnex?
WestConnex Community Liaison Forum
The purpose of the WestConnex Community Liaison Forum is to:
- Provide forum members with a regular forum to raise issues of concern with WestConnex with senior staff to enable Council to respond to those concerns and/or seek responses from State Government.
- Enable Inner West Council to share with forum members and obtain member views on key initiatives being undertaken by Council to oppose WestConnex
- Enable forum members to raise traffic, environmental and other WestConnex construction concerns with Inner West Council to enable Council to pursue those issues with State Government
- Enable forum members to disseminate information to their constituent members regarding WestConnex
Terms of Reference have been prepared and adopted for the WestConnex Community Liaison Forum and are available here: (PDF 68KB)
WestConnex Community Liaison Forum Minutes
Local area improvement strategy
In late 2016 Council resolved to undertake a study to assess the operational traffic impacts WestConnex will have on residential streets in the Inner West Council area.
This resolution was prompted by a concern that WestConnex conditions of approval required Roads and Maritime Services(RMS) to consider WestConnex traffic impacts after the project had opened to traffic.
Council is of the view that it is imperative to consider traffic impacts before opening to ensure streets are protected from potential traffic rat-runs from day one.
Accordingly, Council has commissioned consultants to undertake traffic modelling to identify potentially-affected streets, and to develop a WestConnex Local Area Improvement Strategy (LAIS) to protect these streets.
The LAIS is intended to guide the design and ultimately implementation of a series of traffic calming schemes to protect streets from WestConnex-related traffic.
The proposed treatments are indicative and will require further investigation and community engagement before final draft schemes can be considered
The estimated total cost of LAIS works is up to $29million, and it is intended that Council seeks funding from RMS for these works, arguing that RMS funding is justified as WestConnex has created the need for the works.
Subject to funding, the LAIS would be implemented in a similar way that all of Council’s Local Area Traffic Management (LATM)schemes are implemented – involving local community consultation, detailed design, approval by Traffic Committee and Council and finally implementation.
Officer's report to 8 May 2018 Council meeting
To view the officer’s report on the WestConnex LAIS, visit Council's business papers and minutes page.
Final LAIS report
The final WestConnex LAIS report is available here. Itcomprises the main report by Beca Australia, and a traffic modellingreport by Veitch Lister Consulting (Appendix E).
Legal advice
Advice from prominent Sydney barrister Tim Robertson SC has indicatedthat there is no chance of Inner West Council mounting a successfullegal challenge against the unpopular WestConnex motorway project.
You can view the advice below:
Given the expert advice received to date, Council will not proceed with any legal action.
Tim Robertson SC is an Australian barrister whospecializes in environmental, public, international, constitutional,property, native title and media law.
Mr Robertson’s advice examined the three approvalscurrently granted to the WestConnex project, namely, the M4 widening,the M4 East and the New M5. Mr Robertson considered both the approvalprocess and the approvals granted as a result of the process.
Due to the restrictive nature of the StateGovernment legislation under which WestConnex approvals are given, legalappeals cannot addressthe merits of the project, but must instead rely on flaws in thelegal process to have any prospect of success.
In Mr Robertson’s opinion, as outlined in theconclusion to his advice, “the decisions to approve the M4 widening, NewM4 East and New M5 are … unassailable on legal grounds.”
Liaison with Sydney Motorway Corporation