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7 March, 2012
Dear Fellow Resident
As you know
the City of Sydney Council (COS) has recently conducted a parking survey for
the area of Erskineville west of Erskineville Railway Station. The COS distributed the survey to 2,306 residences
in Erskineville but only received a total of 364 responses. Subsequently
the COS has written to residents advising what action is proposed on a street
by street basis.
As previously advised, Friends of Erskineville (FOE)
has not taken a position either for or against a resident parking scheme for
our suburb as the decision to implement or not implement a scheme is a matter
for residents alone.
Since the receipt of the letter from the COS
containing their proposal for each street, some residents have expressed
concern over the proposed outcome and have requested FOE to act in this matter.
Given that FOE does not have a position on the issue, all FOE can do is
facilitate contact between residents and COS as a community service.
Residents
should by now be aware of the following:
1.
COS intends that the present
proposals will go to the COS Traffic Committee for agreement on 20 March, 2013
and be implemented after that date. Cut off for further submissions following
the receipt of the COS proposals was 22 February, 2013
2.
COS has confirmed that the
Ashmore Estate development will have a limited 2P parking restriction on roads
in that estate and there will be no resident parking scheme implemented as part
of the development. It is proposed that there will be approximately 1900 fewer off
street car parking spaces available than there will be residences in the
Ashmore development. Thus it may be assumed that there will be a spill over
from Ashmore development resident vehicles into surrounding streets if those
surrounding streets have unrestricted parking, resulting in a loss of parking
space to residents of those streets. Affected streets could possibly include
Macdonald, Goddard, Eve, Victoria, George, Ashmore, Malcolm and Binning streets
– some of which are already stressed for parking.
3.
For any resident scheme to
reduce and or restrict motor vehicle ownership and usage to be successful a
viable and efficient public transport system is essential. State Rail figures confirm
that trains ex Erskineville Station in peak hours are up to 180% of capacity. The
present bus service is lacklustre and it is understood that to make a timetable
change requires a two year notice period. In 2012 FOE addressed a Central
Sydney Planning Committee meeting on this public transport issue, and at that
meeting it was learned that the State government can/will only make very minor
changes to the current public transport situation “at the edges”, and it is
unlikely that there will be any major change to or improvement in the present
situation for at least another 5 years and possibly longer. During this 5 year
delay period it is anticipated that Stage 1 of the Ashmore development will be completed
and occupied possibly bringing up to another 1500 residents into the suburb.
4.
Streets where COS proposes some
resident only parking are also adjacent to streets in which it is proposed that
there will be no resident scheme – that is those streets will have unrestricted
parking. There will probably again be overflow from restricted parking streets
into non-restricted streets – some of which are already parking stressed – and
hence a reduction of parking availability for residents of the non-restricted
streets.
5.
The Alexandria survey in 2012
was implemented on a zone basis and hence avoided the problems just outlined.
This has not been done in Erskineville. In addition to this, in Alexandria,
following release of the COS proposals for the area, there was a second public
meeting held on a Saturday to discuss those proposals, with the meeting attended
and chaired by Lord Mayor Clover Moore and with 5 Councillors in attendance. As
at March 7, 2013 COS has declined to facilitate a second meeting for
Erskineville residents to discuss COS proposals.
6.
Some residents wish to have
extended 1P or 2P restricted hours past the proposed 10pm time frame, and
others want reduced hours below the 10 pm time frame. This situation has arisen
dependent on the location of the street or section of the street – either a
location where there are reduced levels of traffic, or a location where there
are increased levels of traffic. Some residents do not believe this has been
taken into account in the COS proposals.
7.
At this time COS has stated
there will be no visitor parking provision in any implemented resident scheme
pending finalisation of the present Alexandria visitor parking trial scheme in
the second half of 2013. Many residents consider this unacceptable and believe that
if a resident parking scheme is introduced then a temporary visitor parking scheme
should also be implemented pending the Alexandria result. It is not acceptable
to many residents that a resident scheme be implemented which does not allow
for visitor parking.
8.
Residents in adjacent streets
believe there should be special attention paid to any scheme at or near the
proposed supermarket on the corner of Gowrie Street and Erskineville Road.
9.
The current proposals are
suggested with no definitive traffic plan for Erskineville, and in particular
in relation to the Ashmore development. It is not known if and when such a
traffic plan will be available.
10.
COS has indicated that it
cannot advise future plans for car share spaces as these are dependent upon
allocation at the time of a request for additional spaces.
11.
Full detail of the proposal for
each street can be accessed at www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
and then typing Erskineville Parking Study into the search box. Note that plans for each street do not
include plans for adjacent streets and hence residents may have to also
access adjacent street plans to judge the full effect of any proposal.
These are some
of the issues that have been raised with FOE. Some residents believe that the
implementation of any scheme must be
·
accompanied by visitor parking
provisions;
·
not be decided upon until such
time as a second meeting is convened by COS to discuss the proposals that have
been made;
·
that any such meeting be held
during the day on a weekend to allow for maximum attendance by residents as was
the case in Alexandria.
In an effort
to assist the community, FOE has developed a letter on the issue which can be
used by residents if they wish to give their opinion to and communicate with
COS. FOE will not lodge a request in order to maintain its neutral position on
this issue.
If you are
one of the residents who believe that the current proposals require further discussion;
that any proposal must include a visitor parking scheme; and that the proposals
should be openly discussed at a public meeting convened by COS before they are
submitted to the COS Traffic Committee for approval; then you may access the
letter here.
Simply follow the instructions and complete the form with you name, residential
address and email address and the letter will be immediately forwarded to COS
with a request for action.
Friends of
Erskineville
