Community Forum - Transport and Planning Options for Sydney's North West
Pioneer Room, Castle Grand
7.00pm
Tuesday 24 February 2009
Have something to ask at our forum? Use the online submission form to get your ideas presented to the panel of experts at the upcoming transport forum.
For nearly twenty years Sydney’s North-West has been promised public transport options to accompany the region’s growth. The region has grown, businesses have relocated and thousands of people call it “home.”
Public Transport has featured prominently - but only in the “political announcements” page. Apart from a few piecemeal projects, little has happened. What public transport that does exist has become overcrowded and clogged or largely irrelevant. Opportunities for medium term “fixes” and long-term sustainability have been missed.
The North West sector residents who often have no choice but to use the available tollways for travel to the city are not eligible for the generous and costly “cashback” scheme available to motorists from the west and south-west (who also have a rail alternative).
Your local station, 2CCR FM 90.5 has organised a Community Forum on Transport and Planning Options for Sydney's North West on Tuesday 24 February from 7.00pm - 9.00pm at the Pioneer Room of the Castle Grand, Cnr Pennant & Castle Streets, Castle Hill.
In December 2008 the General Purpose Standing Committee of the NSW Legislative Council released its report on “The transport needs of Sydney’s North-West sector” and sought a reply from the government within six months.
While the forum will be an opportunity for public comment on its recommendations, we are confident this forum can bring a fresh perspective for the future - following repeated broken promises and years of inaction. There is significant "eloquent anger" in the region (and some great lateral thinking) and we invite anyone with a point of view to email their issues and suggestions prior to the forum to forum@2ccrfm.com . We will collate and summarise these for discussion at the Forum and for submission to the Government. A submission “starter” together with more information on the forum is available at www.2ccfm.com .
Send through your questions, comments and suggestions to be presented at the forum through our online submission form.
The keynote speakers are Professor Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Perth and a member of Infrastructure Australia's Advisory Council and Dr Garry Glazebrook, Senior Lecturer, School of the Built Environment, University of Technology, Sydney and an expert on Sydney's urban transport, sustainable urban transport systems and urban development.
The two other panellists will be Ray Williams MP, Member for Hawkesbury (representing the NSW Opposition Leader) and Councillor Larry Bolitho, Mayor of Hills Shire Council.
Professor Peter Newman
Peter Newman is the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Perth and a member of Infrastructure Australia's Advisory Council.
He is a renowned Australian academic and planner who invented the term ‘automobile dependence’ to describe how we have created cities where we have to drive everywhere. For 30 years since he attended Stanford University during the first oil crisis he has been warning cities about preparing for peak oil.
Peter has published over 200 refereed papers and many books. His book with Jeff Kenworthy 'Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence' was launched in the White House in 1999 and his latest book is ‘Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems’ (publisher Island Press). He was the first Australian author invited to contribute a chapter in the Worldwatch Institute’s annual State of the World publication – the 2007 edition being on cities.
Peter is the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, where he is best known for his work in reviving and extending the city’s rail system. In 2001-03 Peter directed the production of WA’s Sustainability Strategy in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet. It was the first state sustainability strategy in the world. In 2004-05 he was a Sustainability Commissioner in Sydney advising the NSW government on planning issues. In 2006/7 he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Virginia Charlottesville and he returned there in early 2008 as Harry Porter Visiting Professor.
Dr Garry Glazebrook
A Senior Lecturer in the UTS Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, Dr Glazebrook is an expert on Sydney's urban transport, sustainable urban transport systems and urban development. He is widely published on sustainable transport systems and is a regular commentator on peak oil and transport issues in the media.
He has represented Australia on Intelligent Transport Systems standards, and is a member of the International Union of Public Transport and the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil. He has a particular interest in making cities more sustainable, and was a member of the steering committee of the Warren Centre’s ‘Sustainable Transport for Sustainable Cities’ project.