Page 221 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 16 February 2011
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unacceptable to have the Chief Minister say that there are no plans for the implementation of noise mitigation measures when what the community is simply asking is that we have the restoration of the existing measures so that they simply perform the function that they should.
As far as I am concerned, the government’s response is unacceptable. It is a reasonable request. We are asking for restoration of a situation—not the implementation of new measures—and I think it has been rejected by the government on quite spurious grounds
I approached many of the residents living in the area. I have done letterbox drops, spoken to some of the residents and rung others, and the response is interesting. Most people were quite interested that somebody had taken the issue up on their behalf. Just about all I spoke to said, yes, they would like it fixed. There was a humorous moment when one lady said, “Look, we’ve just moved from Sydney and we actually haven’t noticed any noise.” So I guess it shows you how well off we actually are in the ACT against some of the bigger cities like Sydney.
From talking to people, some had become used to the fact that there was noise and they were resigned to the fact that the government would not fix it. But when I said, “Ideally, what would you like?” they all said it would be a good thing if it was fixed. They do appreciate that somebody has taken this up on their behalf.
The noise attenuation barrier in this case is a mound of dirt that was built along the north side of Isabella Drive adjoining the suburb of Macarthur. It provided good protection from noise, road noise initially, but has been reduced as a consequence of erosion over time, trees dying through the drought and as a consequence of projects undertaken by Telstra to lay cables through the area.
I would suggest there must be mounds of dirt available from many building sites or road sites across Canberra which perhaps could be used to restore this barrier. I do not believe it would be a complex problem. The replanting of the trees could also be done. They, of course, will take longer to grow and hence a longer period of time to reduce the sound. But, if we do not start, the existing barrier will continue to degrade and the community will continue to suffer.
Of more serious concern on this matter is the response of the Labor government to a community concern. To simply say, “Well, we have done some testing and it does not quite reach the degree of noise; therefore we will not do it,” is unfortunate, simply because obviously it was understood at the time the barrier was put in place that there was a need for it; otherwise it would not have been put there in the first place. It is unfortunate that it has degraded to such an extent that it now provides less than optimal protection to the people living there. It is a pathetic approach by the government to say: “No. We’ve done a test and the test does not match.”
The government’s own guidelines say that when these issues are raised you have to take into account people’s perception of noise. For a number of the residents, particularly the lady who has contacted me directly, it is a very serious problem. I think it is something that we need to take into account. I think it is a question of why the government will not do this.
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