Hundreds of residents have turned out to two separate meetings for the “forgotten people” of the State Government’s road corridor planning process.
About 100 residents of Oakville, Vineyard and Maraylya affected by the proposed Outer Sydney Orbital (M9) corridor attended an informal meeting held at Pitt Town and District Sports Club on May 16, with another 300 or so attending a Transport for NSW information session held the following evening at Oakville Public School.
Speets Road resident Judy Ryan said nearly 130 property owners from Wallace Road, Vineyard, to Cusack Road, Oakville, were directly affected by the Outer Sydney Orbital north-east section plans.
Ms Ryan, who organised the first meeting, said she had been motivated to act after feeling neglected compared to high-profile opposition to the proposed corridors by other community groups.
“It’s just been horrendous … because we just don’t know what’s going on,” she told the Gazette at the May 16 meeting. “We are the forgotten people. It’s very frustrating, very lonely and we’re not getting answers.”
The resident meeting was attended by Macquarie MP Susan Templeman, a representative of Hawkesbury MP Dominic Perrottet’s office, and local councillors Danielle Wheeler and Peter Reynolds, also Labor’s candidate for Hawkesbury.
A counsellor from the Anglican Church was also organised for those residents suffering stress over the issue.
“We had a meeting of about 100 people. [It was] very informal, and we discussed what questions we all would like answered,” Ms Ryan said. “I wanted [local representatives] to hear us and to know that we actually do matter, that we need support.”
Residents have called the plans a “road to nowhere” as current maps showed the orbital ending at Maraylya, with a note that “future investigations” would identify “connections to the Central Coast”.
“This is a road to nowhere. [We want to] ask them, drill them about the next stage because that’s really significant,” Ms Ryan said. “Who builds a road from Wollongong to Newcastle and only plans the middle section?”
A Q&A session on the plans was held at the May 16 meeting, however many residents later stated on social meeting there “a few great questions, not many great answers”.
One resident stated he “talked to a guy who didn’t understand the geography of the area”, while another posted she “learnt more tonight from my neighbours than any of the government reps”.
Others did not realise the Q&A would be held at all, and had left by the time it kicked off two hours into the session.
Ms Templeman said she had sent letters to Vineyard, Oakville and Maraylya residents alerting them to the fact the Transport for NSW information session was being held “because we really wanted to raise awareness with them”.
“You only got a letter if you were directly in a corridor yet this sort of road impacts an entire community, not just the houses specifically affected,” she told the Gazette.
“I think people are right to feel neglected and I hope that tonight [May 16] they will be given a chance to ask questions as a collective and get some answers from the Department of Transport people about all the things that aren’t clear – where is this road going, how is it going to get to the Central Coast?
“It’s a half plan and no wonder people are really upset that their lives are going to be impacted by something that’s a half formed idea.”
