Sydney council fights freight terminal plan

A key western Sydney council is pushing back against federal and state government plans to build a massive freight terminal at Moorebank because it fears a deluge of heavy truck traffic, reported The Sydeny Morning Herald.

At this week's meeting of Liverpool City Council, councillors sought the help of local state and federal MPs "in opposing this facility", which they say could also cause flooding and environmental damage to nearby waterways.

The mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Wendy Waller, told the Herald she was also worried about the increase in noise and air pollution for residents around the proposed site, on federal government land in the Wattle Grove precinct.

The recent federal budget earmarked US$63 million for the Moorebank Intermodal Terminal, which, at an estimated total cost of $267 million, would take cargo from the rapidly expanding Port Botany via the southern Sydney freight line, and transfer it onto trucks for distribution around Australia.

The councillors instructed the mayor to "write to the Prime Minister and federal minister responsible, informing them of the community disapproval of this facility being built in Wattle Grove".

The resolution also "stated its concern on the effects on Anzac Creek in relation to flooding and pollution that will be a consequence of this proposal".

Waller said local residents and the council were upset at what they considered to be insufficient consultation by the federal and state governments over the location and scale of the terminal.

"The planning of this has to be much more sensitive," she said. "There are serious issues about fumes and noise and also the disruption that will be caused by the removal of spoil during construction."

One organiser from the South West Sydney Community Alliance, Roy Carter, who lives near the proposed site, said several government reports had predicted a trebling of freight and heavy traffic into the Port Botany and the Moorebank areas.

A Sydney Ports report from 2004 forecast a rise in the number of containers coming into Port Botany from 1.12 million a year in 2003 to 3.2 million a year in 2025.

With the government pushing for 40 per cent of cargo to go by rail, Mr Carter calculated about 1.3 million containers would be coming into Moorebank for distribution.

(Source: Cargo News Asia)