In the latest in the saga of the "world's worst park", the Inner West Council is calling on the NSW Government to hand over key reports that could reveal they knew about problematic pollution levels before attempting to hand over responsibility for the St Peters Interchange parklands.
"Given that there are literally thousands of people who live, or work or travel past that site every day I think it's appalling that we and our community have been kept in the dark about a matter of potentially serious public health and safety like this," said Independent councillor Pauline Lockie, who brought the motion to council.
In last week's council meeting, council resolved unanimously to request Transport for NSW hand over the reports ordered by the Environmental Protection Agency along with any other relevant reports and information about investigations into ongoing contamination at the WestConnex St Peters Interchange site. They also requested an urgent briefing from Transport for NSW about the reports and remediation works currently being carried out.
In September 2021, the Inner West Council and City of Sydney rejected Transport for NSW's push for them to take on responsibility for the parts of the parkland which fell within their local government areas.
Both councils were concerned ongoing remediation works to decontaminate the former landfill site would pose a liability. The Inner West Council resolved to write to the government to request they investigate contamination concerns and carry out any necessary remediation.
"However, unbeknown to us, when we passed the resolution the EPA had already required Transport for NSW to carry out a lot more investigation and work before they could guarantee the open space around the toll road was not a public health hazard," said Cr Lockie.
The latest subsurface landfill gas monitoring carried out by Transport for NSW in January and February of this year showed methane readings of up to 62 per cent per volume at one monitoring point.
Originally set to open in late 2019 or early 2020, the 8.5 hectare park was promised as compensation for the effects of the WestConnex project on the community.
"It's not a park in any real sense of the word, it's scraps of land that are left over after they've built a motorway interchange, rolled in glitter and sold to us as a park," Cr Lockie said.
Transport for NSW said they were responsible for the maintenance and operation of the park and were working to remediate the hill. A spokesperson said they were continuing to communicate with both the Inner West and Sydney councils.
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