Light rail: Clover Moore spread ‘false news’ on the number of trees in George St, says Transport Minister
EXCLUSIVE: CLOVER Moore suggested the Baird government review legal obligations to disabled people as she hoped to change the George St light rail.
NSW
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LORD Mayor Clover Moore suggested the Baird government review its legal obligations to disabled people as she tried to railroad ministers into changing the George St light rail design.
She also spread “false news” on the number of trees on George St, according to Transport Minister Andrew Constance, who has hit back at Ms Moore’s claim that the $2.1 billion project is off track.
Ms Moore blew up about the light rail project last month, writing a furious letter to Premier Mike Baird and Mr Constance with a long list of gripes. City of Sydney is partnering with the state government to build the light rail and contributing $220 million but the relationship is increasingly fraught.
Ms Moore’s whinge centred on “over-scaled” shelters where passengers will wait for trams, with complaints the structures will have a “serious negative impact” on heritage precincts at Wynyard and the Queen Victoria Building.
The Lord Mayor suggested people wait under shop awnings to escape the elements. But the shelters are large because the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) requires sheltered areas and seating be provided for disabled people close to where trams stop.
About 2000 people an hour are forecast to use the light rail in peak hour and having that many people shelter under nearby shop awnings would cause havoc.
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In a recent meeting with Mr Constance, Ms Moore suggested the state government find alternatives to its obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act so it can scrap the shelters.
Mr Constance, a former disability services minister, refused. “I am quite determined the light rail project should meet those requirements,” Mr Constance said in a letter to Ms Moore.
The minister accused Ms Moore of creating “false news” after she threatened to withhold $47 million in funding after complaints the number of trees on the route are “inadequate”.
The Lord Mayor’s comments were published in The Sydney Morning Herald with computer-generated images of a treeless George St.
“Despite recent assertions to the contrary by various parties, the NSW government has always intended that George Street will be tree-lined, both for shelter and visual amenity,” Mr Constance wrote.
Ms Moore welcomed Mr Constance’s commitment that George St will be “an inviting tree-lined boulevard that revitalises our city heart, not bleak and cluttered”. “City staff and design experts are sure this outcome is possible while meeting disability requirements,” she said.
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