DATE: 31st March 2009
FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT PAULA RODEN
(Tel: 02-9683-6655)
Should a peak
hour afternoon see Sydney’s
railway services from the city to the west seriously disrupted, an alternative
route to get thousands of people home would have been made available by the
promised Chatswood to Parramatta
railway link.
We didn’t get the
rail link after all, instead, thanks to the passing of the State Government’s
Parking Space Levy Bill 2009 through the NSW Lower House last week; we will
suffer an additional cost of $240 per annum for each of our car parking spaces
from July 2009.
Last year’s NSW
Mini-Budget presented some tough economic measures, including an increase in
the State Government’s Parking Space Levy to $710 from its current rate of $470
per year.
But Parramatta is not alone.
This Bill will significantly increase the Levy paid on car parking spaces in Sydney, Chatswood, St Leonard’s and North
Sydney CBDs.
Whilst this levy
does not apply to parking spaces used exclusively for retail, hotel, motel,
club, restaurant and medical centre purposes, it does apply to around 9,000
parking spaces in Parramatta. This means that the NSW Government is increasing
the fleece on Parramatta from around $4,230,000 per annum to around $6,390,000.
Pittwater Liberal
MP Rob Stokes recently pointed out that this legislation was introduced in 1992
with the original intention that all monies collected by the State Government’s
parking levy would be spent on enhancing public transport in the areas affected
by it.
A review of what
Parramatta has received from its $4,230,000 per annum contribution seems to
indicate not very much and therefore the question must be asked. Why is this
so?
We have seen a
massive investment in bus lanes snaking into Parramatta, but it is not enough
and is at the expense of improvements to the heavily utilised railway and the
potentially more-heavily utilised ferry service?
Parramatta has seen the cancellation of the
Chatswood to Parramatta Rail Link after the NSW Government dropped its
commitment and terminated the line at Epping. Meanwhile peak-hour trains
arriving at Parramatta bringing workers from further west often resemble the
much joked-about “tin of sardines”.
However, to those
suffering onboard, it’s not a laughing matter. Likewise, those joining the
train at Parramatta
going to work in Sydney
or North Sydney find standing room only most
of the time. This is not to mention those 35 degree summer afternoons when the
train pulling up at North Sydney for the run to Parramatta has no air
conditioning.
We have also seen
the on-going battle to retain the Parramatta RiverCat ferry service between
Sydney and Parramatta. For years the advice pertaining to erratic schedules and
environmental damage was ignored until finally the predicted recommendation to
scrap the service came with the 2007 Walker Report of the Special Commission of
Inquiry into Sydney Ferries Corporation.
The Parramatta Chamber of Commerce believes that the
voice of the people should have been listened to and considered when it came to
the RiverCat timetables and that the search for an environmentally-sustainable
vessel could have commenced years ago.
Meanwhile
Victoria and Parramatta Roads, the M4 and James Ruse Drive become even more the
traffic jam nightmares they already are.
Business in Parramatta is willing to
contribute its share. What the Parramatta Chamber
of Commerce asks is that those taking this contribution make good their
promises for taking it.
