MEDLOW BATH COMMUNITY DESERVES TO BE HEARD

04 August 2021

Federal Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman has used a speech in the Australian Parliament to call for more time for Medlow Bath residents to comment on plans for the widening of the Great Western Highway.

 

Ms Templeman told Parliament on August 4 the plans were hundreds of pages long, and face-to-face consultation was the only way everyone’s voice could be heard.

 

“Medlow Bath residents are understandably furious that their opportunity to examine the NSW Government's plans for a four-lane highway through their village will be limited because no face-to-face consultation and discussion can be done before the deadline,” Ms Templeman told Parliament.

 

“Under pressure, Transport for NSW has offered to send USBs or hard copy, but It’s complex design plans; a 220-page review of environmental factors and 866 pages of appendices.

 

“As residents’ association President, Debra Brown, said, 'Anyone without a computer had no possibility of seeing the plans’.”

 

Ms Templeman, Member for Blue Mountains Trish Doyle, and Mayor Mark Greenhill have written to the NSW and Federal Governments calling for an extension beyond lockdown so that face-to-face consultation can occur on the federally-funded project.

 

“What the community really needs is an opportunity to sit down and discuss the detailed plan they've worked up around extending the Blackheath-Mount Victoria tunnel that stops just short of Medlow, so that this little hamlet with the historically significant Hydro Majestic is not obliterated by a four-lane road,” Ms Templeman said.

 

“I don't understand the haste, except that maybe someone wants to get federal money spent fast.

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