[dropcap]A [/dropcap]Campbelltown councillor says there’s not much we can do to stop the massive population growth heading our way.
“I don’t think pushing back against growth is an option,’’ says George Greiss, the senior Liberal Party councillor.
“Growth is coming and it will not be an option for our council to say, no, we’re not interested in it,’’ Cr Greiss told the Voice in an interview this morning.
“You’ve got to remember a lot of this happens at a higher strategic level (State Government).
“The way we are looking we will need to have two more million people in Sydney over the next 20 years or so.’’
The Voice asked Cr Greiss if Campbelltown’s residential bushland areas such as Long Point, Wedderburn and Kentlyn were locked away safe from this huge wave of growth.
“There’s nothing locked out and there’s nothing safe – remember that it’s the State Government that decides and controls land rezoning; the council makes recommendations and the minister makes the final decision,’’ he said.
“I wouldn’t release such areas in the next LEP (Local Environment Plan), we need diversity and mix, which means you need to keep some of the bigger places for the people who want to live in them and you want to keep some of the smaller places for the people who need to have a starting point in housing.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“But I would not expect to see a place like Kentlyn as a development option in the foreseeable future,’’ Cr Greiss said.[/social_quote]
The Voice asked Cr Greiss if he thought west and south west Sydney would end up doing all the heavy lifting while some wealthy post codes got a free pass over the next couples of decades.
“As to whether everyone else in Sydney will do their fair share I am not sure, but it’s actually an interesting question and I will need to look into it,’’ Cr Greiss said.
“Ask me again in six months, if you like.’’
On the Western Sydney City Deal signed on Sunday, Cr Greiss said that it could be a game changer for the region.
“That’s what it’s being sold as, but the proof is in the pudding, we need to see the details, to find out how much Western Sydney gains from it,’’ he said.
“It’s very hard to comment on something you don’t know the details of, but in general the Western Sydney City Deal will be something that will be remembered for a long time.
“I am optimistic but patiently waiting to find out what the details are,’’ Cr Greiss said.
Short term attitude on re-zoning is not an option on a planet that is millions of years old, why do immigrants have to come to cities? If they legislated they would only keep them in the country for three years then they turn up in the cities like immigrants go to New Zealand only to immigrate to Australia, where is long term ecological approaches, we are a monoculture, only watch humans on TV and other media but it is a living planet millions of years old? Self interest is winning over true awareness
Councillor Greiss… head on over to our page and scroll through the hundreds of posts we have made on this subject.
As someone who was on the Council when the original three cities plan was ha fed to council we were delighted that the plans for Campbelltown provided for the residential growth would be surrounded by open space all around, the scenic hill to the west , Georges River to the east with Wedderburn and the open space at Glenfield and Macquarie Fields. Even since there has been a push by developers to get their hands on our open space and the current Coalition Government is doing a REVIEW of crown land so all the state has to be on guard because this review is about letting developers get their greedy hands on these community amenities.
It appears that the current government is hell bent on pushing the growth of population out to the south west but have no plans to provide proper services particularly public transport. The idea of putting some 100000 new people in Camden when it already takes up to an hour to get from Camden now.
The first growth came to Macarthur when the Whitlam Government provided the funds to build our hospital, university and Tom Uren gave the Water Board funds to sewer the area. This government is only interested in building huge roadways to serve their inner city voters and trying to protect the Liberal MPs as the Labor voting areas are starved of services.
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Fortunately the councillor’s constituents have the option of saying No to him in 2020. Unfortunately they will have to wait until 2020.
Saying no to population growth is just common sense. Because of money we want to destroy the nature of the south west and the new people that move to the area will not have a clue to what we destroyed..