By Andrew Herington. It was a bad day for local residents wanting protection from increased pollution. Despite all the evidence, it seems the EPA has shut its eyes and wants to give the green light for the EWL to proceed with no variation to the conditions. On noise, the EPA argued against having any improved […]
Tag Archives: East West Link
A STRANGE LULL AT HALF TIME
By Andrew Herington The tempo of the hearings dropped markedly today as the last of the council witnesses were heard. Michelle Zeibots, a Sydney academic who has specialised in induced traffic gave a strong performance explaining in detail the numerous factors that result in overall traffic increases when new road space is provided. The LMA has […]
THE RUBBER HITS THE ROAD AS YARRA SETS OUT THE CASE AGAINST
By Andrew Herington Week four started with a distinct change of tone. Adrian Finanzio, counsel for the City of Yarra delivered a comprehensive analysis of the merits of the LMA case for the freeway and the weakness of the legal arguments on which they have relied. Summarising the arguments presented over the last 15 days, […]
MOONEE VALLEY OPENS ITS CASE
By Andrew Herington The focus shifted today to the inner northern suburbs with expert witnesses appearing for the Moonee Valley City Council tackling traffic and noise impacts. Louise Hicks for the Council began by tabling a huge folder of detailed policies covering planning, transport, environment, open space and other issues. Quoting liberally from the documents […]
THE DEMON DIAGRAM – THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL
By Andrew Herington The East West Link is all about traffic, a topic that got a good belting on Day 12. At the heart of this argument is the ‘demon diagram’ produced by the LMA (so called because it is red and blue – the colours of Mr Morris’s favourite football team). It purports to […]
Day 11: Good urban design is in the eye of the beholder
By Andrew Herington Three more expert witnesses and three cracking debates about the flaws in the East West Link design and potential alternatives. After 11 days, the hearings are starting to get to the meat of the argument with some real discussion about why there is only one design on the table and how it […]
Day 10: LAWYERS VERSUS EXPERTS AT TEN PACES
By Andrew Herington It seems that the next few days are destined to settle into a pattern of ‘lawyers versus experts at ten paces’. The LMA has introduced its arguments and laid out the case. The Councils are now seeking to demolish it brick by brick whilst the LMA try to defend their original choice […]
PREVIEW OF WEEK 3 – COUNCILS PUT the CASE AGAINST
By Andrew Herington The hearings have now moved into the second of three phases. For the next ten days, we will be hearing from the Councils and their expert witnesses putting the detailed case against the East West Link. This will be followed by two days of presentations from the EPA and local politicians before […]
Time to make your case
Tips from community members: The time for individual submissions to be heard by the Assessment Committee is rapidly approaching. It’s time to sharpen your pencil and start working out what to say. The first few individuals start appearing next week and in just a fortnight the assessment committee moves into the last phase of the […]
LMA closes its case
By Andrew Herington As the LMA case wraps up, it is fair to say the experts they called to argue the case for the East West Link were underwhelming. This reflects the small pool of specialised knowledge in Australia – and the choices made by the proponent and consultants to defend the project and the […]
Live Blog starts 3 March
East West Link Blog 