NorthConnex Protest Foiled

Apparently NorthConnex brought forward the 'sod turning' ceremony, and SCAPS, the campaign protesting the ventilation arrangements, suspect this was to avoid a planned protest at the originally scheduled ceremony.

NWRL Second Harbour Tunnel

LABOR leader Luke Foley has said he will dump the second harbour rail tunnel to connect the North West Rail line to the Bankstown line if he wins the March state election.

"I am not convinced another connection from the north is a priority for the city," Mr Foley said.

And that would leave the NWRL stuck terminating at Chatswood.

 

Meet the NSW Election Candidates 19 Feb

The Beecroft-Cheltenham Civic Trust is holding a Meet the Candidates night, from 8pm on Thursday week, 19 February at Beecroft Presbyterian Church Hall behind 6 Welham St Beecroft.  This is the usual custom for our Trust for all Council, NSW and Federal elections.

Kent Ross will chair the meeting, allowing each candidate a short sales pitch then requiring the candidates to address selected issues pertinent to Beecroft and Cheltenham.

Byles Creek Valley Under Threat

There is a development proposal before Hornsby Shire Council to subdivide one lot at the vacant land of 79-87 Malton Road into five residential lots.  Google shows this land to be covered in magnificent trees, and it must be assumed that most of these trees will go as a direct result of the development, and any that survive the development will be at risk of being taken out by the new landlords under the 10/50 rule, where landowners can cut down trees close to the finished properties.
 
Here is one magnificent tree being felled under that rule early February about a hundred yards from the entry to Byles Creek.

The nearby Byles Creek bushland is a breeding ground for the magnificent Powerful Owl, and home to the last known Sydney population of the Gang Gang Cockatoo.

For those not familiar with the delightful Byles Creek track walk, you enter from the playground park at the end of Malton Road just after the 79-87 Malton block.  The walk comes out near Ahimsa and Day Road.  Enjoy it now before the developers destroy it!

Clean Up Australia Day 1 March

Beecroft's Clean Up Australia Day is from 9:00 to 12:00 on Sunday 1 March, starting in the Village Green.  You must register at the desk there in order to be covered by insurance, and to receive your gloves and other equipment.

Traffic changes, Epping

It is proposed to ban right turns off Langston Place onto Epping Rd, to ease the queue of cars over the Epping railway bridge waiting to turn right onto Blaxland Rd.

Biodiversity Officer made to resign

The Biodiversity Conservation Officer at the Newcastle Office has been asked to resign because of his concerns about the ability of the OEH as a regulator to achieve positive outcomes.  The introduction to his letter of resignation includes this:

"The Mining SEPP makes a mockery of a transparent and ecologically sustainable planning process. It should also be concerning to the people of NSW, as it is to me, that the Department of Planning and OEH itself has been captured in the big coal and gas rush by promoting policies which will guarantee further losses of biodiversity, a situation which is not consistent with international or national environmental obligations."