Today the NSW Government has announced a Sydney Metro station at Waterloo.
Member for Newtown Jenny Leong says that it’s reasonable that the local community has concerns about the implications of the decision, particularly around public and affordable housing, and transport accessibility.
Ms Leong said: “It’s understandable that the community is asking – if they build a new station at Waterloo what will happen to the long-going struggle for a Redfern Station upgrade to ensure full accessibility of this key transport hub?”
“The recent addition of a single lift at Redfern does not answer on-going community calls for a fully accessible station.”
Ms Leong says that the decision to place the station at Waterloo instead of Sydney University means that other inner city transport needs now have to be addressed.
“Now that Sydney University and RPA aren’t getting a Metro station – it’s the perfect opportunity for the Government to put plans for Parramatta Rd light rail back on the table.”
Read more on the implications of the private Waterloo metro station from NSW Greens Transport spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi MLC here.
There are also serious concerns that the proposed Waterloo redevelopment does not adequately address the need for public and affordable housing in the area.
“The announcement by the state Government today will see Urban Growth taking over the development of large parts of our Redfern/Waterloo public housing community. This is cause for serious concern – not because redevelopment of public housing isn’t needed, but because Urban Growth’s track record in our area has seen some pretty devastating outcomes – including the selloff of the Australian Technology Park site and massive proposed overdevelopment at North Eveleigh.”
“While we acknowledge the Government’s commitment that the number of social housing dwellings will be maintained in the new development, we need to ensure that these dwellings will continue to house the same number of residents.”
“We have seen cases of redevelopment of public housing where the number of dwellings has been maintained but with a significant reduction in size. As a minimum we need a commitment that there will be no reduction in the number of bedrooms or number of residents that can be housed.”
“Our community needs a significant investment in affordable housing, which needs to come on top of any commitment to maintain existing public housing.”
“Reports suggesting two thirds of the redevelopment will be private and one third social and affordable housing has the priorities wrong – we need to see these figures reversed.”
“Urban Growth might pull all the strings when it comes to decisions made by the NSW Government but they do not control this community.”
Read more on this from the NSW Greens Housing spokesperson Jan Barham MLC here.