Eleven years on as one of the community leaders of the fight to stop an intermodal freight terminal in Moorebank, John Anderson cannot understand why it’s still a live issue in 2016.
“They are in denial about it, that’s probably why,’’ says the 68 year old Wattle Grove resident.
The chairman of RAID – Residents Against Intermodal Development – is completely convinced that both the proponents of the intermodal proposal and the bureaucrats and politicians who will decide its fate have lost the plot.
“There is just no way they can justify what they are pushing,’’ he says.
“Look at all the growth in housing forecast for the south west region – they are talking about 450,000 new people, all of whom will need to drive through Liverpool to get to work and back.
“For them, there is no way around it; they have to go through Liverpool,’’ Mr Anderson says.
“Traffic bottlenecks are already a fact of life around Moorebank so how much worse will it be in a few years’ time.’’
Once Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) hearings are completed sometime this year, a decision will finally be made one way or another, so the South West Voice asks the RAID chairman how confident he is that the intermodal will never get off the ground.
“I am confident that they cannot justify approving this proposal,’’ he says.
“The whole process has been bewildering from the start.
“For example the peer review of the Environment Impact Study commissioned by Liverpool Council may be incomplete when PAC hearings are held; you’d think they’d wait for the peer review before hearings, but it’s par for the course.
“It seems to me and the rest of the residents who are fighting this that nobody in the state and federal governments is prepared to address the real issues.
“That’s the impact on traffic, air quality and noise.
“Not to mention the impact on one of the biggest koala colonies in Australia, right here in Holsworthy,’’ Mr Anderson says.
Some people have argued that the intermodal should be located near the proposed Badgerys Creek airport, but Mr Anderson says maybe there’s no need at all for another intermodal in the Sydney metropolitan area.
“I don’t think anyone’s made the case for another intermodal freight terminal,’’ he says.
One of Mr Anderson’s biggest regrets during the past 11 years has been that more residents have not joined the fight against the proposal.
“I do understand how they see things,’’ he says.
“They believe there’s nothing they can do, that the whole thing is a done deal and cannot be stopped.
“From my point of view though I think you have got to try, because the last place an intermodal should be is next to people’s homes,’’ he says.
So what will happen if worse comes to worst and the intermodal is given the green light this year?
“After all these years, I’d love it if it was all over tomorrow,’’ Mr Anderson says.
“I believe we will prevail, so I am not really worrying about what we may do if we don’t win.
“The way we the residents see it, if they listen to us and look at all the facts, there is no way you could approve this intermodal for Moorebank.’’
