Hundreds protest freight link

source: the west australian

Hundreds protest freight link

Perth Freight Link protesters on and near Stirling Bridge, East Fremantle.
Picture: Simon Santi/The West Australian

Hundreds of people donned paper dust masks before marching across Stirling Bridge in East Fremantle this morning to protest against the Perth Freight Link.

The protesters highlighted diesel fuel exhaust as a pollution hazard as they filled the pedestrian walkway on the bridge.

During a rally at Kitson Reserve, Federal Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan said the project would not bring home the "economic bacon" for the State.

She told the crowd the only solution was an outer harbour in Kwinana.

Ms MacTiernan said Labour's pledge going into the next Federal election would be to allocate $2 million to the State Government to restart the planning on the outer harbour.

"That is in fact the only solution, it is what indeed these billions of dollars should be spent on delivering," she said.

"We want infrastructure that is really going to benefit this State."

The full story is available HERE

Hundreds protest Perth Freight Link on Fremantle Bridge

source: wa today

Hundreds protest Perth Freight Link on Fremantle Bridge

Protesters gathered on the Stirling Bridge in Fremantle. Photo: Ray Sparvell

• Premier apologies to Palmyra homeowners 
• Senate inquiry into Perth Freight Link
• Comedian Ben Elton slams 'economic nonsense'

Several hundred protesters claimed the Stirling Bridge between East and North Fremantle on Sunday to express their anger about the planned Perth Freight Link.

Many dressed in orange with white dust masks they spanned the bridge to highlight diesel pollution and the Roe 8 extension - particularly the Section 2 connection into the Fremantle port.

Hundreds of protesters gathered to voice their displeasure with the road project. Photo: Ray Sparvell

 

A number of speakers addressed the good-natured crowd that ranged from toddlers and dogs to senior citizens.

Speakers included member for Perth Alannah McTiernan, member for Willagee Peter Tinley and Greens member Lynn Maclaren.

The freight link was announced in February last year with a $925m funding commitment from the federal government. The first stage of the project, which will begin with the controversial Roe 8 extension through the Beeliar Wetlands and approach Fremantle from the south, is set to cost $1.5 billion and is due to start construction early next year.

The state government had committed $650 million to the project, which it says will remove 500 trucks a day from the congested 70km/h Leach Highway.

In August 2015 the Senate announced it would conduct an inquiry into the highly contested project.
Senators lead by Scott Ludlam of the Greens have been badgering the federal and state governments to reveal "basic information" about the highway, which will run from Perth Airport down to Fremantle Port.

The Barnett government has also been under fierce attack from the state opposition and Palmyra residents whose homes would need to be bulldozed to make way for WA's first toll highway.

Read more HERE

More Perth Freight Link rally attracts 1,000 protesters in Fremantle

source: abc news

Perth Freight Link rally attracts 1,000 protesters in Fremantle

 

About 1,000 people have marched through Fremantle in protest over the WA Government's contentious $1.6 billion Perth Freight Link project. 

The heavy transport route, linking Perth's industrial eastern suburbs to Fremantle Port, is opposed by residents who face losing their homes.

Labor has also been critical of the Government's planning process, seizing on an Infrastructure Australia report last month which it said showed the project had been hastily conceived.

Federal MP Alannah MacTiernan today told the crowd Labor would immediately allocate money towards a study into a new outer harbour at Kwinana if it won the next federal election.

"We will allocate $2 million to the State Government to restart that planning on the outer harbour and to get an application in as soon as possible to Infrastructure Australia so we can have sensible, well-considered investment into this state," she said.

"We want infrastructure that is really going to benefit the people of this state, benefit jobs.... ensure we remain a competitive economy."

The State Government has said it believes both the Perth Freight Link and the new outer harbour are important pieces of infrastructure for the city's future, but Labor argues the freight link should be scrapped and wants work to begin on the outer harbour.

Conservationists have also argued a crucial component of the project, linking Roe Highway from the Kwinana Freeway to Stock Road, will impact the Beeliar Wetlands in Perth's southern suburbs.

Freight Link 'the right thing for WA': Minister

But the Transport Minister Dean Nalder said the project had been well-planned and was environmentally responsible.

"Roe 8 is a fantastic project and a very important project for shifting freight," he said at the opening of a Gateway WA project interchange in Forrestfield.

"At the moment the number of trucks that are growing on Kwinana Freeway and intermingling with passenger vehicles is very large.

"With the Roe 8 section it takes it across to Stock Road, which will service both the inner harbour and the outer harbour when it's developed.

"We understand there's concerns whenever we do something that impacts on natural vegetation, we need to make sure we've looked at it carefully, we followed due-process, and I'm very comfortable the process has been done properly and we're doing the right thing and the responsible thing for Western Australia."

see the original article HERE

GREAT BRIDGE PROTEST AGAINST FREIGHT LINK

GREAT BRIDGE PROTEST AGAINST FREIGHT LINK

Posted in by freoview on September 13, 2015 

 

Over a thousand people turned up this Sunday morning for the Bridge Protest against the PERTH FREIGHT LINK. The crowd stretched all along Stirling Bridge and received many appreciative honks from passing motorists.

Politicians Melissa Parke, Lyn MacLaren, Peter Tinley and Alannah McTiernan were there, as were the Mayors and Councillors of affected municipalities.

Here photos of the event that all interested organisations can use free of charge on social media, as long as they give me a credit for it.

Roel Loopers

ROEL FOR FREO! Beaconsfield Ward. Truly Independent.
 

WA Premier Colin Barnett declines Perth Freight Link forum invite

WA Premier Colin Barnett declines
Perth Freight Link forum invite

source: joe spagnolop perth now

WA Premier Colin Barnett will not speak at a forum on the Perth Freight Link in his Cottesloe electorate.

• INFRASTRUCTURE: Doubts cast over Government’s decision to build Freight Link
• DIVISIONS EMERGE: Perth Freight Link causes cracks in Barnett Government

PREMIER Colin Barnett says he won’t be attending a Perth Freight Link forum in his electorate of Cottesloe on Tuesday night because he spoke at a community forum in North Fremantle.

But an email from his electorate office to Perth lawyer John Hammond suggests there are other reasons for his absence.

“The area in my electorate that is most affected by Perth Freight Link is North Fremantle,” Mr Barnett told PerthNow.

“I spoke at a community forum there, which was attended by more than 200 people and at which all of the issues were canvassed.”

But an email, from Mr Barnett’s electoral office to Mr Hammond — who heads SOS Cottesloe Inc (a residents and ratepayers association) — sent on August 11 paints another picture.

It says: “It was understood that the invitation to Mr Barnett was as local member, to join local speakers, including the Town of Cottesloe, and a local audience and as such he was prepared to attend.

“The material distributed by SOS Cottesloe is now under the banner of Rethink the Link and advertising what appears to be a political debate, mentioning the Premier, The Leader of the Opposition etc and with the main contact being Rethink the Link.

“This being the case, the invitation to take part is declined.”

Liberal sources say Mr Barnett is getting cold feet on proceeding with section two of the PFL, which will see a freight route from Stock Road to the Fremantle Port.

Mr Hammond has hit back at Mr Barnett, saying it was ‘disappointing that the Premier is not attending a meeting held in how own electorate over such an important issue”.

“To say that he is not attending because it appears to be a political debate is difficult to comprehend given the Premier engages in political debate every day as a politician.”

Tuesday night’s forum starts at 6pm at the Cottesloe Civic Centre.

See the original store HERE

New port a good idea, says Barnett

New port a good idea, says Barnett

source: western suburbs community news

COTTESLOE MLA Colin Barnett has indicated faster planning for a new Kwinana container port following community opposition to the Perth Freight Link (PFL).

“It might be a good idea to make a decision on a new outer harbour very soon, but even if we started today it wouldn’t be operating for 10 years,” Mr Barnett told a North Fremantle Community Association PFL meeting last Tuesday.

The new port had a claimed cost-benefit ratio of about $8.76 generated for each dollar spent when the Labor Opposition approved the concept design in 2007. Mr Barnett said a report he had read indicated the PFL had a cost-benefit ratio of “about 2.5”, and he said a new port could cost “about $4 billion”.

He said cost could also prevent the not-yet-designed section of the PFL from South Lake to North Fremantle, but the Roe 8 component through Beeliar wetlands to Stock Road, costing “less than $500 million”, would be built, taking a claimed 2000 trucks off Leach Highway daily.

Some of Mr Barnett’s western suburbs’ electors fear the PFL will funnel more trucks and cars to Curtin Avenue and Stirling Highway, after the Fremantle Port Authority estimated trucks using its wharves would quadruple to 13,200 daily by 2030.

Mr Barnett said he could not guarantee Cottesloe and Mosman Park residents would have fewer trucks from the PFL, but there could be “a string of financial incentives” and “a compulsion” for trucks to use the PFL south to Roe Highway.

No decisions had yet been made about the interchanges and flyovers needed for the PFL.

He said even if the 14 per cent of port containers now carried by rail was increased to 30 per cent, an eventual doubling of Fremantle Port containers would still mean 70 per cent were moved on trucks.

Please read the original article HERE from Community News

Residents still in limbo over Roe 9

Residents still in limbo over Roe 9 

source: Fremantle Gazette

Premier Colin Barnett at last week’s North Fremantle Community Association Meeting.

THE uncertainty felt by residents living along two proposed routes for Roe 9 will continue, with the State Government no closer to deciding which avenue it will choose for stage two of the $1.6 billion Perth Freight Link (PFL).

The State Government is also no closer to finding a solution to extend the PFL from Stirling Bridge into Fremantle Port.

But any hope these challenges would sway the State into working instead towards an outer harbour at Cockburn Sound have been stopped in their tracks, with Premier Colin Barnett warning that environmental groups are sure to perk up once the dock is put firmly on the agenda.

Mr Barnett last week reiterated comments from State Treasurer Mike Nahan that Roe 8, the 5.2km link from Roe Highway to Stock Road, was good to go.

“I expect the contracts for construction of Roe 8 to be signed well before Christmas and I expect construction to begin early 2016,” he said.

But residents in Hamilton Hill, Palmyra and White Gum Valley, who are situated along two alternative routes linking Stock Road to Stirling Bridge, are still no wiser about their future.

“That connection is still a long, long way away and very different to the Roe 8 issue,” Mr Barnett told a packed North Fremantle Community Hall last Tuesday evening.

The Government is also battling to find a solution for the last piece of the Perth Freight Link puzzle: getting trucks across the Swan River. Sustainability expert Peter Newman said a solution “looks almost impossible”.

“It’s quite possible the only thing is to go over the top of the Stirling Bridge,” he said.

“It seems to be the only thing the engineers are saying to me.

“Certainly the tunnelling won’t work. There is no safe solution to that last bit.”

But the issues have not encouraged Mr Barnett to turn his attention to the outer harbour at Cockburn Sound, which he said would come under intense scrutiny when planning finally got started.

“There is no doubt at some stage you will see the development of a container facility in Cockburn Sound,” Mr Barnett said.

“But that is going to be a contentious project; it will be heavily opposed, probably quite validly on environmental grounds, on recreational grounds for people who sail and boat and fish in the area.

“That’s going to be a very intrusive construction out into the middle of Cockburn Sound.”

Prof Newman said any PFL should be headed to an outer harbour because of WA’s growing “knowledge economy” and because container terminals should not be in the heart of a city, as is the case in Fremantle.

Mr Barnett said he would rather progress Roe 8 now than wait 10 years for an over-flow outer harbour to be built.

The original article, can and should be read HERE