Opponents of a controversial cycleway along Sydney’s Oxford Street claim it is a “Trojan horse” and its proponents are harbouring a “hidden agenda” as they prepare to target Lord Mayor Clover Moore ahead of next month’s council elections.
About 100 people attended a public meeting at Paddington RSL last week including News Corp columnist Piers Akerman, Liberal-aligned strategist Yaron Finkelstein and former city councillor Kathryn Greiner, who is among six Paddington residents who have complained to the Australian Human Rights Commission about the cycleway.
The latest Transport for NSW render of a proposed 1.8-kilometre separated cycleway on Sydney’s Oxford Street.
Although the proposed bike lane from Taylor Square to Centennial Park is a state government project, several speakers turned their focus on Moore, who supports the plan. One Paddington business owner, Mark Duff, labelled her an “autocrat” who wielded power over Macquarie Street. “She was sold a pup years ago that Sydney could be a new Copenhagen or Amsterdam,” he said.
Duff predicted the Paddington markets would not survive, and Oxford Street businesses would either be boarded up or replaced by candle shops and $2 stores. “And then you’ll see one cyclist going past with a breadstick in his basket going, ‘Oh, this is wonderful’.”
Among opponents’ concerns is that several right turns off Oxford Street will be cut off when the cycleway is built. Elizabeth Crundall, a former charity chief executive, suggested residents barricade the streets “so people understand what it’s going to be like when you can’t turn right”.
“We can beat this, but we need a lot of people,” she told the meeting. “I’ve been a lobbyist, you can talk to [government ministers] until you’re blue in the freakin’ face, it won’t make any difference. You’re not, I don’t think, going to vote Clover out, short of shooting her.”
Beacham Hotel owner Sue Ritchie conducts a public meeting to “Save Our Oxford Street” at the Paddington RSL.Credit: Michael Koziol
Numerous speakers and attendees claimed there were ulterior motives behind the cycleway but did not specify what they were. Anthony, a resident on the City of Sydney side, wondered why the state government remained committed to the project despite its tight budget. “There’s a hidden agenda here that we’re not being told about,” he said.
Local cyclist Rodney Cox called the cycleway “Clover’s Great Wall” and a Trojan horse, while Duff asserted a “deal” had been done. “There’ll be something going on with the contracts,” he said.
Most speakers endorsed an alternative dubbed “Plan C”, in which the current pop-up cycleway on Moore Park Road would become permanent, while Oxford Street would be beautified with parklets, alfresco dining and a shared lane for cyclists, buses and cars.
Meeting organiser Sue Ritchie, co-owner of the Beacham Hotel, said many locals believed the Oxford Street cycleway was being pursued to appease sporting interests. Venues NSW and Rugby Australia are publicly opposed to the temporary cycleway running past Allianz Stadium on Moore Park Road, calling it “extremely dangerous”.
A separated cycleway on Oxford Street in Bondi Junction.Credit: Steven Siewert
Ritchie acknowledged the cycleway was a state government initiative, but said many attendees were long-term Moore supporters and felt “let down” by her support for the project.
Moore said the first separated cycleway she opened, on Bourke Street in Surry Hills, was also subject to a “vicious and hysterical” reaction. “You would have thought I was opening a nuclear reactor.” But in the end, residents and local businesses “loved it”, she said.
A separated cycleway would help transform Oxford Street from a noisy traffic thoroughfare to a place people wanted to linger, explore and shop, Moore said, as well as improving cyclist safety.
“Requiring riders to compete with vehicular traffic on the main road puts riders in undue danger every day that this separated cycleway is not built.”
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