26 June, 2013
Metro Strategy is a plan to wreck Sydney’s environment
The NSW Government’s draft Metropolitan Strategy for Sydney is an all-out attack on Sydney’s natural environment, the Total Environment Centre (TEC) and Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC) warned today.
The Metro Strategy should be a vision for an environmentally sustainable Sydney, not a developers’ shopping list, the groups said.
“The strategy is a cave-in to developers and a plan for urban sprawl, land clearing, more traffic chaos and worsening air pollution,” TEC Executive Director Jeff Angel said.
“An alarming aspect of the plan is the setting of minimum targets for population growth and new development and a shift away from current urban consolidation strategies to largely unchecked urban sprawl development on Sydney’s fringes, including in the Blue Mountains.
“Sydney’s chronic traffic congestion and air pollution problems stem from years of urban sprawl and the failure to develop public transport to meet rising demand. Accelerating development on Sydney’s fringes will make developing new public transport prohibitively expensive and enshrine car dependency.”
NCC Chairperson, Professor Don White, said: “The government has failed to define sustainable limits to urban development, identify environmental values and habitats to be protected or set targets for conserving biodiversity.
“It is also surprising and disappointing that the government has chosen to push ahead with the Metropolitan Strategy before the public consultation around the proposed new planning system has been completed.”
TEC and NCC are urging the government to re-write the draft strategy with a focus on sustainability.
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