Local representatives from across the political spectrum have reacted to the handing down of the NSW Parliament’s inquiry into the Windsor Bridge Replacement Project.
Hawkesbury MP Dominic Perrottet
“The Government remains committed to delivering a new safe Windsor Bridge for the Hawkesbury community. It’s time to move ahead with this project which will ease congestion and help people get to work and home quicker.
“We have also committed to build a third crossing of the Hawkesbury at Richmond with $25 million committed to planning work in the 2018 Budget.”
Macquarie MP Susan Templeman
“In some ways this inquiry report raises as many questions at it answers. The inquiry’s finding that the options presented to the community for consultation presumed a preference for a replacement of the existing bridge shows there was something motivating the NSW Government that we still don’t really have the truth about.
“They’ve found that there was no comprehensive independent assessment, no consideration of alternatives, and there are concerns about there being no real improvement in traffic, which makes this project look like a giant waste of $100 million.
“I fully support NSW Labor’s calls to halt the work on the bridge.”
Cr Danielle Wheeler, Hawkesbury Greens
“The local community have been sold a dummy on this project, with the Coalition Government adopting an appalling process that failed basic due diligence. We now know, as with so many of this government’s privately constructed infrastructure projects, that a whole series of corners were cut to get this project approved in the face of local opposition.
“With no independent assurance process, no genuine alternative designs being tested and a final bridge design that leaves Windsor as flood-prone and congested as before, this is a project that is failing the Hawkesbury and North West Sydney.
“Windsor doesn’t need more heavy traffic in its centre, especially not at the cost of our heritage. What it needs is to retain the current historic bridge, and a genuine bypass that will be flood-proof and improve traffic flow on one of Sydney’s four exit routes.”
Cr Peter Reynolds, Labor candidate for Hawkesbury
“The Windsor Bridge Replacement Project was flawed from the outset and this inquiry has confirmed that. The community opposition to this project has come from people in all walks of life and of all political persuasions, for Scot Macdonald to dismiss this as a political stunt is unforgivable.
"It is a shame that Mr Macdonald’s focus in this inquiry is to attack political opponents, rather than hold the project and its proponents to account. His shallow parroting of RMS rhetoric is a prime example of the lack of due diligence inside the current NSW Government.”
“The public will not be fooled by Mr Macdonald's attempt to deflect scrutiny from this failure of a project and protect the Liberal party’s interests. The fact he is proud to waste over $100million to destroy our nation's irreplaceable heritage with a project which fails to deliver the traffic relief so desperately required speaks volumes.
“There is only one acceptable outcome, that is the immediate cessation of construction and the planning of a real traffic solution.”
