In December 2017, I met with senior officials from Department of Planning and Environment to discuss ongoing issues residents have been experiencing with WestCONnex, including issues with breaches of construction conditions, noise mitigation, and concern about the Stage 3 EIS being approved based on an ill-defined "concept" design.
I'll report back more on this next year, but it looks like Planning will be willing to commit to increasing resources, doing more proactive enforcement, and stepping in with ongoing issues residents have been experiencing with night works, etc.
One thing that became very apparent in the meeting is that it's really important to keep up the complaints when breaches happen. Because official complaints have dropped, they said they did not realise how bad things still are for residents living near the construction works - and have actually reduced the time they've put into mitigation measures as a result.
I know it's hard, especially when WestCONnex contractors are often so reluctant to fix issues. But the more complaints Planning are aware of, the more resources they will keep on the issue, and the more pressure will be brought to bear to fix problems.
So whenever you see, hear or experience issues, send your complaints to:
* WestConnex: 1800 660 248 (ask for a reference number), [email protected] OR [email protected]
* EPA: 131 555 (24/7 line), [email protected]
* Planning: 1300 305 695 (24/7), [email protected]
* Inner West Council: [email protected] (we don't have a formal compliance role, but can help advocate for residents, and it's good for us to receive copies of Inner West complaints)