Local residents opposed to a giant intermodal at Moorebank are reeling following the decision of the Planning Assessment Commission of NSW to give it the green light.
It means the Moorebank Intermodal Company (MIC) can press ahead with stage one works to prepare the site for an intermodal facility that will cater for up to 1.05 million shipping container movements a year, rising to 1.55 million when the Sydney Intermodal Terminal Alliance (SIMTA) gains consent to its development application on an adjacent site.
John Anderson, the chairman of Residents Against Intermodal Development (RAID) said he was appalled by both the decision and the timing of it.
He said it was debatable if it was coincidence that PAC had brought down its decision last week in the middle of the worst local floods in years.
“And I am just amazed that they continue to ignore what the residents are saying, which is that we don’t want this terminal here.
“We don’t want all the noise and pollution it will bring in a place that already has enough of those problems,’’ Mr Anderson said.
“We are pretty devastated by this but we will keep on fighting it.
“Personally I won’t stop fighting this until the very end,’’ he said.’’
“It’s just wrong.’’
Stage one work will involve the demolition of buildings on the Moorebank Avenue site, including rehabilitation of the excavation/earthmoving training area; remediation of contaminated land, removal of underground storage tanks; heritage impact remediation works and the establishment of construction facilities and access, including site security.
In granting consent the Commission seems to have heeded the warning of residents regarding traffic congestion and noise pollution.
It has imposed fairly tough conditions to “prevent, minimise, and/or offset adverse environmental impacts including economic and social impacts.
The Commission also imposed standards and performance measures for acceptable environmental performance and regular monitoring and reporting.
“Projects carried out under this staged development consent are to be assessed with the objective of not exceeding the capacity of the transport network, including the local, regional and State road network,’’ the Commission said in its statement of consent.
“The applicant [MIC] shall install and maintain a rail noise monitoring system on the rail link at the commencement of operation to continuously monitor the noise from rail operations,’’ it said.
The PAC granted approval for an interstate terminal to cater for up to 500,000 container movements a year.
It also approved the movement of another 250,000 containers for the IMEX terminal, “if the consent authority is satisfied that the Traffic Impact Assessment demonstrates the proposal would not exceed the capacity of the transport network with or without mitigation measures/upgrades;
PAC said that it also allowed, after the facility has been in operation, for an increase of up to an additional 300,000 containers if the consent authority is satisfied that monitoring and modelling of the operation of the IMEX terminal demonstrates that traffic movements resulting from the proposed increase will achieve the objective of not exceeding the capacity of the transport network.
After the facility has been in operation, a further increase up to an additional 500,000 container movements would be allowed so long as the combined approved movement of container freight by road on the site and the adjacent SIMTA site does not exceed 1.55 million containers.
The big white elephant cannot suceed as they will not get the vehicles on our roads also only 0.1 per cent of cargo is for here it is deeply flawed and idiotic