HHAG Committee Activity

Since our last newsletter Lynda Lovegrove has resigned from the committee, where she was both active member and filled the role of Secretary. On behalf of the community I have thanked Lynda for all the effort she put in. Trish Ryan, an already active member of the committee, has kindly volunteered to act as Secretary of the group going forward.

Since the last meeting of HHAG there have been a number of meetings, both separate meetings of the HHAG committee and combined meetings with the Hartley District Progress Association, the latter to progress a number of planning issues emanating from the highway upgrade project that are more appropriately pursued as broader Hartley District Progress Association initiatives.

RTA’s May Announcement

Early May saw the release of the RTA’s preferred route report. This has confirmed a costing on the upgrade that are closer to $2billion than $1billion compared to an originally proposed spend of less than half a billion dollars.

In an announcement associated with the release of the report, the Minister for Roads committed to spend $30 million on immediate safety enhancements and confirmed that government had committed $250 million to undertake the Little Hartley Bypass, to resolve the intersection issues at Cox’s River Road, Baaners Lane and Browns Gap road and to implement the RTA’s Southern Alignment Upgrade on River Lett Hill.

Immediate Safety Enhancement Project

We welcome the announcement of the safety enhancement spend. This is consistent with the call we have been making seeking safety enhancements that urgently need to proceed, regardless of, and prior to any general upgrade. In the same vein we are delighted to hear that the RTA has committed to undertake a safety review of the Highway between Lithgow and Mt Victoria and has scheduled public meetings to consult the community on 28th June. This is consistent with a request we made to the RTA and our political representatives, seeking a broadening of the Central West Transport Routes (Safety) Review announced by the government in March that only looked at the GWH west of Lithgow.

Feeding into this process HHAG has produced a detailed list of proposed enhancements that Bob Morris and Trish Ryan have already held some discussions on with Orange corridor residents. We are still seeking further comment and assistance on the development of that list. It can be accessed in detail on the HHAG website at hhag.com.au and follow the link from the home page. If you don’t have access to the website please let us know and we will arrange a hard copy for you. If you think there are any omissions that should be added to this list please let us know.

HHAG view on current status

In many ways the currently proposed safety and general upgrades looks entirely consistent with our call for a safety upgrade of the road through the valley and the redirection of the balance of funds earmarked for the project to enhance rail freight capacity or more appropriate road freight routes.
The $280 million proposed immediate spend looks like a good safety upgrade, subject to a bit of debate about priorities (eg RLH or Forty Bends… which should be the priority?)

The greater than $1billion cost of the balance of the RTA proposal will by necessity defer the project long enough for the fullest debate. Debate on both appropriate routes eg should the Newnes option be reconsidered and whether alternate development of rail freight capacity might be a better spend.
On the former, we note Mayor Castle’s reference to his meeting last week on behalf of the Central West councils with Minister Albanese’s office, seeking action on the BLOR/Newnes corridor. On the latter we note the continually growing constituency interested in the ‘rail rather than road’ debate, including our neighbours in the Blue Mountains who have lent vociferous support to this call.

Future Plannning

The Highway upgrade proposal has brought to light a number of issues that require the fullest integration into the (long awaited) Lithgow Local Environment Plan. Consideration of issues, like how to get the best outcome out of the proposed bypass of the Little Hartley village, soon lead to broader issues of land use and future development. These factors led us to propose that the Hartley District Progress Association support an initiative to seek out the views of the community on the future of the valley. The initial workshop to explore this subject was convened jointly by the HHAG committee and the Hartley district progress Association last weekend, 19th June. The next HDPA Newsletter should provide initial feedback on the thoughts emanating from that workshop. The forty odd attendees should receive some preliminary feedback early next month.

If you have a view on any points expressed here do not hesitate to call.

Ramsay Moodie
Chairman 25th June 2010
63552259 0412283800 99830134

Our last Hartley Highway Action Group(HHAG) update was included in a newsletter prior to Christmas. Since then we have held a series of three meeting with orange corridor residents to consider the outputs from the value management workshops conducted by the RTA late last year. The last of these meetings had the senior RTA project manager in attendance.

These meetings have provided assurance that there will be further opportunity to influence this project as it proceeds to concept stage and that many good suggestions out of the value management workshop and our recent orange corridor residents meetings can only be properly considered and implemented in the detailed design stage. In the latest meeting the RTA confirmed that the final route proposal will be publicised about Easter. As another element of this discussion with the RTA they agreed to run a public workshop on the law and processes relating to resumption of any land to enable the 50 or 60 affected landholders to become familiar with the process prior to having to engage with the RTA’s land resumption negotiator.

Whilst dealing above to a process to try and ensure the best outcome if the road upgrade goes ahead, HHAG has continued to pursue the overarching strategy against the upgrade approved by the community at last year’s 26th September public meeting. Pursuing this strategy we continue to press for major safety enhancements of the existing road and the diversion of excess funds from the project to the development of more appropriate road freight transport routes and to enhance rail freight capacity. In a recent development we received an acknowledgment of our letter to the Prime Minister sent following the November Community Cabinet meeting held in Bathurst advising that our call has been referred by the Prime Minister to Minister Albanese as the Minister responsible for Infrastructure development.

If you have a view on any point expressed here do not hesitate to call.

Ramsay Moodie
Chairman 22nd March 2010
63552259 0412283800 99830134

Public meeting

HHAG is holding a public meeting to discuss the RTA’s
detailed plans for the ‘Orange Corridor’.
All residents and owners directly affected by
any of the orange corridor options are urged to attend.
4 pm Saturday 23 January 2010
Hartley School Hall

IN THIS ISSUE:

• RTA’s current plans
• Outcome of RTA value management workshop
• Where HHAG stands now
• Meeting with those affected by the orange corridor

RTA’s current plans

In August the NSW government announced that the chosen option for the ‘upgrade’ of the Great Western Highway was the orange corridor, the corridor following generally the present alignment of the GWH through the Hartley valley. HHAG held a well-attended public meeting to seek guidance from the community on this decision. That meeting confirmed our strategy: to seek a minimum safety upgrade of the road through the valley and redirect the balance of funds earmarked for the project to enhance rail freight capacity or more appropriate road freight routes.

This strategy was overwhelmingly endorsed by the public when 3500 submissions were made to the RTA, opposing the massive ‘upgrade’ and calling for investment in safety, a road freight strategy and rail. The RTA continued on its course, and held a value management workshop last month to consider certain aspects of the chosen route.

Outcome of RTA value management workshop

HHAG was represented at that meeting through my attendance, as we decided that we needed to be represented in order to be able to critique the process, and to try to influence the outcome if that was appropriate.

The meeting was run by Dr David Stevens, a recognised expert on Value Management. Some forty people attended with probably half being RTA people and the balance other stakeholders eg several aboriginal groups, Lithgow and Blue Mtns councils, and a police representative.

The process saw the meeting in five parallel streams agree the criteria that would most appropriately be used to differentiate route options. Each option was assessed against each criteria on a scale of 1 (bad) to 10 (fantastic). That assessment was then multiplied by the weighting and the resultant products were summed to give a weighted score where the highest total represented the values based preferred option. This indicated very clear preferences for the Long Tunnel for the Mt Vic sector, the Southern Bypass for Little Hartley and the existing alignment for Forty Bends. The options at River Lett Hill were very close.

A further step involved overlaying the cost of each option into the equation. This made the Southern option appear better on River Lett Hill but didn’t change any others. No costings were available for Mt Vic which made it impossible to do a cost based assessment of those options. This can be done when those costs become available in the next fortnight and needs to be the subject of careful scrutiny.

As an antagonist I was unable to fault the process. It looked logical, it looked fair and there was really no opportunity for vested interests to exert any inordinate influence over the outcomes. Each of the four community attendees at the workshop were equally complimentary of the Value Management assessment process. A detailed report summarising the proceedings and conclusions should soon be available on the RTA website.

Where HHAG stands now

With refinement of the design for the orange corridor little has changed. Predictably, the workshop was precluded from considering the issues most important to HHAG: safety measures on the current highway, better freight strategies and investment in rail.

One thing that has certainly not changed is the time it will take before there is even a decision (unless this government or the next agrees with the commonsense of the community: improve safety, and invest in long term solutions).The RTA says that a decision is two years away, after costing, environmental assessment and planning approval. It is likely to take much longer. And only then do a series of separate construction projects, along sections of the GWH from Mt Victoria to Lithgow, stand in line for funding over many years.

And there is one other certainty. Whatever slow progress the RTA makes with its plans for the massive ‘upgrade’, it does nothing about the present black spots on the highway, the constant increase in the size and number of trucks, the inefficiency of moving commodities through the Blue Mountains and the Hartley valley, and the shift in freight from rail to road. These high-priority issues affect us all, wherever we live and however we use the highway.

With these thoughts in mind Wednesday’s meeting of the committee decided to hold a meeting at 4 pm on Saturday 23rd January Hartley School Hall for all those who feel they are directly affected by the orange corridor.

Public meeting with those affected by the orange corridor

Our intention at the meeting will be to determine individual stakeholders’ levels of acceptance or rejection of the current state of play and then to discuss what we might be able to do to assist those affected. Basically, we can help to ensure that the processes are open and fair. Bob Morris 6355 2127 and Duncan Wass 6355 2043 will co ordinate this meeting. Either would welcome your call to discuss the matter.

If you have a view on any point expressed here do not hesitate to call. All the best for Christmas.

Ramsay Moodie
Chairman 4th December 2009
63552259 0412283800 99830134

Since our last newsletter three additional members have joined the HHAG committee elected at the public meeting we held on 26th September. The three new members are Pauline Worthington, Duncan Wass and Trish Ryan, all residents of the orange corridor or thereabouts. One member, Col Mc Donald, has resigned from the committee since our last newsletter. We have expressed our sincere thanks to Col particularly for his work with the RTA geologists regarding the Hartley Vale trough fault and the under valley workings. Since the public meeting the committee has met on two occasions (at the Comet Inn generously facilitated by Kathy and Greg).

Our public meeting on 26th September was called to enable the community to comment on the go forward strategy that the committee had promulgated in newsletters No 6 and No 7. That strategy, essentially to seek a minimum safety upgrade of the road through the valley and redirect the balance of funds earmarked for the project to enhance rail freight capacity or more appropriate road freight routes was considered by the meeting and confirmed.

One of the key benefits of our strategy is that it has virtually the universal support of communities across the Blue Mountains with the Mt Victoria and Blackheath communities actively pursuing that objective. Lower Mountain communities that have been briefed on the strategy also support it. In short they see our valley as the “western bastion” that, if left largely as is, will protect the Blue Mountains from the inroads of ever bigger heavy road freight vehicles. The current manifestation of this strategy in the Mountains is a call to the RTA and government to undertake a safety only upgrade in Hartley and to redirect funds to fix the key safety issues on the Bells Line of Road and to enhance rail capacity.

For our part we have continued to push for reconsideration of the Newnes option (realistically with the emerging focus on fiscal deficits as economic growth recommences this call is likely to fall on deaf ears). We have written to Member for Macquarie Bob Debus and New South Wales Roads Minister David Campbell. Whilst we have requested reconsideration of the Newnes option as a wise spend for the long term we have also outlined the minimal upgrade reallocate funds to the enhance BLOR/rail etc strategy and have sought to meet with them to put this case. Our local member Gerard Martin is endeavouring to facilitate our meeting with Minister Campbell. We also sought a meeting with the Federal Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese at the Community Cabinet meeting held in Bathurst on 9th November. That meeting was refused and resulted in my putting our case, that we intended to present to Minister Albanese, direct to the Prime Minister.

Separately our colleagues from Blackheath and Mt Victoria met with Minister Campbell on 19th October in a meeting facilitated by the Member for the Blue Mountains Phil Koperberg. In that meeting Minister Campbell acknowledged that the government will be watching carefully the current consultation process being undertaken by the RTA, will strongly respect community views, and are not irredeemably committed to the Mt Vic to Lithgow upgrade. This meeting has resulted in huge enthusiasm in the Blue Mountains, as outlined below, supporting the minimal upgrade strategy.

The week ending 23rd October saw a significant development in our battle with the RTA’s issuance of their October 2009 Display of Route Options Brochure. This brochure provided an outline of the routes they proposed after their decision to focus on the orange corridor as announced by the Minister for Roads on 27th August. It also announced a series of meetings to inform the community.

The HHAG committee has taken exception to the period of notice given in respect of these meetings where notices seem to have arrived in letter boxes between 23rd and 27th for a meeting to be held on the 30th. This is a totally inadequate period of notice and we have written to Michael Bushby the Chief Executive of the RTA protesting this inadequacy in the RTA’s community consultation process.

These meetings comprised a feedback meeting to all of those who had participated in the road corridors workshops and then three community briefing sessions, one in Mt Vic and two in Hartley. All meeting were similar in content and gave a bit of insight into the alternate road routes outlined in the 15 page Route Options brochure the RTA distributed. The fact that the RTA didn’t provide any detailed analysis of the reasons for the decision to focus entirely on routes through the orange corridor was a disappointment.

The meetings also sought volunteers to be observers in a “Value Management” workshop to be held on 25/26th November. I will attend this workshop with three other valley/Mt Vic representatives. Whilst my participation is intended to give us a critical insight into this process, it does not constitute an acceptance of the legitimacy of the workshop. Feedback from this workshop process will be provided at a meeting scheduled for 30th November at 6.30 pm at the Hartley School House.

So what now? In our interim newsletter 8 A we asked for your urgent support in submitting one of our standard letters of objection to the RTA. In addition to submissions relating to particular route issues, your submission of that letter will be vitally important to demonstrate the ground swell of opinion that supports the minimal, safety only upgrade for Hartley. If you haven’t done that its not too late, even now. Just post it off direct to the RTA at ;

Roads and Traffic Authority
Reply Paid 334
PARKES NSW 2870
You don’t need a stamp.

At the Rhododendron festival in Blackheath earlier in the month, hundreds signed similar letters in support of our call. Mt Victoria is also promoting the strategy and we will have many of our supporters in the Central West similarly writing letters of support. In the last two weeks our Blue Mountains colleagues, with our support, have conducted an advertising campaign calling for additional public support both in the mountains and in the central west. At the date of this newsletter some 3500 letters had been signed supporting the Blue Mountains wide call for a minimal upgrade. If you haven’t already done so visit www.saveourmountains.org.au and register your protest .

Ramsay Moodie
Chairman 24th November 2009
tel 6355 2259 0412 283800 9983 0134

Viaduct 110 metres high and 1.9km long!!! The road on the Sydney Harbour Bridge is 50 metres above the water

Download newsletter 8a as a Word document (3MB)

We need your help and we need it now please. The strategy confirmed at our 26th September public meeting was to seek a minimal safety upgrade of the road through the valley and redirect the balance of funds earmarked for the project to enhance rail freight capacity or more appropriate road freight routes like the Bells Line of Road.

Facilitated by the Member for the Blue Mountains Phil Koperberg our colleagues from Blackheath and Mt Victoria met with Minister Campbell on 19th October. In that meeting Minister Campbell acknowledged that the government will be watching carefully the current consultation process being undertaken by the RTA, will strongly respect community views, and are not irredeemably committed to the Mt Vic to Lithgow upgrade. This is our last chance to have our views prevail.
Our immediate need is for residents to respond to the RTA using the letter attached (in addition to any route specific response you have already given).

Please, this is important;

• Insert your name and address on the top of the letter attached.
• Sign it.
• Drop it off in the collection box at Adams Shed GWH Hartley

We will arrange to transmit your letter to the RTA with a copy to relevant pollies.
Your letter will be vitally important to demonstrate the ground swell of opinion that supports the minimal, safety only upgrade for Hartley. At the Rhododendron festival in Blackheath last Saturday thousands signed similar letters in support of our call. Mt Victoria is also promoting the strategy and we will have many of our supporters in the Central West similarly writing letters of support. As the Hartley Valley is most directly affected it is vital that we get a large volume of support in the valley. Please act now while it is fresh in your mind.

Ramsay Moodie
Chairman 8th November 2009

tel 6355 2259, 0412 283800, 99830134

Public Meeting

4pm Saturday 26th September, Hartley School Hall

Consider future direction for Hartley Highway Action Group, Consider possible re-constitution of committee, Consider future strategy for the valley’s defence, join us for afternoon tea from 3.30

The last week of August saw the Honourable Michael Daley, Minister for Roads in the NSW government, make announcements in Mt Victoria and Lithgow in respect of the Mt Victoria to Lithgow GWH upgrade. The essence of that announcement was that the GWH upgrade should be effected within the orange corridor, explaining that “This option has the least combined impact on the many significant issues identified so far in the (RTA) consultation process including local aboriginal heritage and environment considerations, engineering restraints, economic and social impacts and cost.” This is a decision made by political government but clearly informed by the several million dollars of work that the RTA has already completed investigating constraints within each of the four nominated corridors. What we are seeing is a massive acceleration in the process that the RTA has imposed upon us.

Whilst HHAG has never promoted any particular corridor, the call for ‘existing line’ has been very apparent in the various forums associated with the project. Gerard Martin, when he met with the Hartley Valley community on 18th July, made clear that was his view, also Lithgow council had endorsed that option. In many ways we shouldn’t be surprised by the decision but we do need to now focus on what it means and what we can do to drive the best community outcomes from the planning and implementation of this decision.

The alarming thing about the announcement is that despite trying to reconfirm original promises made in “The Government will honour its commitment to bypass the main village of Mount Victoria, River Lett Hill and the steep grades of Victoria Pass within the orange corridor,” no mention has been made of non indigenous settlement heritage assets within the valley, a subject that had been the subject of earlier assurances.

At the time of the announcement by Minister Daley, HHAG was/(is) still pushing government for a reopening of consideration of the ‘Newnes Option’. Ten days before, we had sent follow up letters seeking responses to our letters of early and mid June seeking this reconsideration and an undertaking on the >19metre B doubles issue from the Minister. I anticipate we will probably receive formal responses offering the announcement that has been made as our answer. We need to consider whether we should wipe the slate clean of this option or continue to push it, recognising that it has a significant cost attached, some vociferous opposition and may never be warranted if use of rail is properly promoted.

Regardless of any consideration of the Newnes option, we now need to quickly focus on the valley. What we now have is a massive acceleration of process. The announcement that was to be made by the RTA in early 2010 has been made, we now need to adopt our defence strategy to deal to this development.
In our last newsletter we outlined the elements of our go forward strategy. We need to adjust and refine that strategy to take account of the new situation. We even need to consider whether HHAG is the right vehicle to carry this agenda forward. In summary that new strategy might be;

1. Support for physical improvements at River Lett Hill and Forty Bends, clearly needed for safety.
2. Opposition to the reconstruction or bypassing of Victoria Pass and support instead for improvements to gradients and alignment, the conservation of the Mitchell causeway and the implementation of serious new safety measures on the pass.
3. Demand for sensitive design and the fullest consultations during any highway upgrade in the valley, and support for all those affected by the upgrade.
4. Demand for investment in rail, to provide sustainable integrated freight systems between the Central West, Sydney and the coast.
5. Demand for the long term development of road freight routes which avoid Lithgow, the Hartley valley and the Blue Mountains, and which minimise changes in elevation to minimise fuel use.

We do however need to put all these ideas up for grabs and consult closely with those directly affected ie those in the orange corridor. Can HHAG represent you/them or has HHAG passed its ‘use by’ date? Perhaps affected landholders would want to deal directly with the RTA in pushing their desires, equally working through a group can be much more effective. On top of that HHAG has built a significant base of knowledge, resources and allies both to the East and West. I think we can provide good help particularly through the alliances we are still building.

Please join us for a meeting at the Hartley Schoolhouse on Saturday 26th September to consider the future of HHAG, the possible reconstitution of the committee and the consideration of strategy going forward. By way of starting on the latter I’d reconfirm our earlier tentatively stated ‘in valley’ fall back strategy as follows;

• improvement of the grade and alignment of the Victoria Pass
• improvement of the grade and alignment on River Lett Hill
• the reduction of ice hazards under Hassans Walls through the use of road and information technology
• no impairment of the escarpment and valley vistas
• the conservation and interpretation of Mitchell’s Victoria Pass viaduct
• the protection of heritage buildings from vibration and emissions
• the creation of an historic buildings precinct served only by local and tourist traffic
• the retention of excellent visual and vehicular access to the Hartley Historic site.
  (Already this needs to be built upon with a pressing need to determine details like heritage property curtilage demands).

Whilst the meeting on 26th September might be of primary interest to people located in the orange corridor we would welcome people from across the valley. We all have an interest in helping to get
this right.

Ramsay Moodie
Chairman 7th September 2009
6355 2259 | 0412 283800 | 9983 0134

Dear residents, business owners and operators,

The NSW Minister for Roads has decided that plans for the upgrade of the Great Western Highway from Mount Victoria to Lithgow will now concentrate solely on the corridor along the existing highway (orange corridor).

Read the Minister for Roads’ news release.

The RTA website will be updated when more information is available.

Please phone 1800 035 733 (toll free), post a letter to PO Box 334 Parkes NSW 2870 or email western_projects@rta.nsw.gov.au for more information on the project.

Yours faithfully,

Cindy Nutley
Communications
Mount Victoria to Lithgow upgrade

In the last Hartley Highway Action Group newsletter I alluded to the debate the committee has been having to define the principles that underpin our defence strategy.

We are still pursuing the Newnes corridor option and await responses, from both local member and original proponents, Bob Debus and Michael Daley the NSW Minister for Roads, on our demand for further consideration of this option. At the same time we have seen an increasing array of calls for the road to be left on its current line, the latest being local state member Gerard Martin’s references at the 18th July meeting at the school house. For our part we have been endeavouring to build an alliance with the Blue Mountains community where there are eighty thousand voters who will have an interest in the increased use of the highway by heavy freight vehicles and the bigger issue of whether freight should be transported by rail or road.

Before we move to the next stage of developments in respect of the highway ‘upgrade’ we felt it important that we should share the defence principles that have been debated and agreed to by the committee. I will outline them below in full.

Whilst HHAG recognises the existence of the present (historic) line of road running through the valley it’s primary defence of the valley is based on the promotion of an alternate route via the Darling Causeway and Newnes plateau and the many benefits that proposal offers.

As its second line of defence the following plan (some items of which have potential for universal support) is being pursued.

Promote investment in rail, to provide sustainable integrated freight systems between the Central West, Sydney and the coast.

Promote the development of better (preferred) road freight routes which avoid

• the Hartley valley and Lithgow (for instance the Newnes plateau)
• the Blue Mountains towns (for instance the Hume and the Golden Highways or long term the Bells Line of Road)

and which minimise changes in elevation to minimise fuel use.

Seek a commitment now to no increase in the size of trucks using the Great Western Highway: No B-doubles greater than 19 metres through the mountains.

Seek a commitment now to no new route through the Hartley valley, Australia’s most historic valley, where Australia’s inland settlement began, and where Wiradjiri, Dharug and Gundungurra traditional custodians met for millennia prior to European settlement.

Promote the management of the existing highway between Lapstone and Lithgow to increase safety and amenity, using local improvements and information technology (eg point to point cameras) and other methods to influence driver behaviour.

If — for reasons of safety — the Great Western Highway has to be upgraded between Mt Victoria and Lithgow, seek priority for immediate safety improvements and promote the following objectives:

• improvement of the grade and alignment of the Victoria Pass
• improvement of the grade and alignment on River Lett Hill
• the reduction of ice hazards under Hassans Walls through the use of road and information technology
• no impairment of the escarpment and valley vistas
• the conservation and interpretation of Mitchell’s Victoria Pass viaduct
• the protection of heritage buildings from vibration and emissions
• the creation of an historic buildings precinct served only by local and tourist traffic
• the retention of excellent visual and vehicular access to the Hartley Historic site.

Explore all measures to protect and support residents and owners who are affected by RTA actions.

I should emphasise that the principles have been developed by the committee endeavouring to establish what the community we represent would want. The RTA will make their decisions after consultation with the whole community, in view of this we need to ensure broad consensus on the principles underpinning our defence strategy. We’d encourage your comment or criticism of these principles. We will also need to have an insight into some of the detail that would be entailed in the implementation of each principle. If you would like to join a small group to discuss the principles or to make suggestions in respect of the underlying detail please let us know by emailing the Secretary of HHAG Lynda Lovegrove or making direct contact with any member of the committee.

Since our last newsletter in early July, the HHAG committee has met on one occasion. In addition, on 4th July a HHAG deputation met with representatives of the Mt Victoria and Blackheath communities to discuss pan Blue Mountain co operation. On the 8th July a deputation met with Andrew Stoner, NSW leader of the Nationals and shadow spokesperson for Roads and Ports, who volunteered an immediate cessation of the valley GWH upgrade to enable a full consideration of a Newnes and Bells Line of Road upgrade. On 16th July a deputation attended the Bathurst NSW Community Cabinet meeting debrief to further promote our cause. On 18th July we hosted local member Gerard Martin’s attendance at a public meeting at the schoolhouse. In that meeting Mr Martin made several references to the retention of the road on its current line or thereabouts. In the next week we will lend our support to a pan Blue Mountains objection to the proposal by Centennial Coal to transport 500,000 tonnes of coal per year across the mountains by road rather than rail. On the same line a meeting has now been firmly scheduled for 13th August where some twenty Blue Mountain community groups will assemble to consider establishing an umbrella organisation to counter the High Productivity Vehicles road freight threat posed by the Mt Victoria Lithgow highway upgrade.

We have recently updated our letter writing kit and “take action” email capacity on the HHAG website to enable email protest re the use of B-doubles greater than 19 metres. Encourage your friends to email at http://www.hartleyhighwayactiongroup.com/

Please take action, your protest counts.

Ramsay Moodie
Chairman 27th July 2009
6355 2259 | 0412 283800 | 9983 0010

Notice of Community Meeting

Hartley School Hall
Saturday 18th July 4 – 5pm

Invitation to the Hartley Community Public Meeting

Gerard Martin MP, Member for Bathurst, has asked to meet the Hartley community to put his position on the Hartley highway issue. This is a great opportunity to speak directly to our elected State Government representative on this matter and to understand how the Government is hearing our message.

Please come, ask questions and share your concerns.

Everyone welcome

Have your views heard at this important meeting

Much has happened since our late April newsletter calling a Public Meeting 2nd May. That meeting attended by some sixty residents passed a number of motions including a call to have the Newnes option re-examined by government and another motion calling for more direct protest action by the group.

Lithgow Protest 3rd May: on the momentum of the previous day’s public meeting some 60 odd protesters turned out to protest the potential damage to our valley and the risks associated with heavy freight vehicles transiting the Blue Mountains GWH to Sydney. This protest received a lot of media coverage in Lithgow and the Central West.

Council Meeting 11th May. HHAG representatives and supporters attended the Lithgow council meeting where a council motion was to be put calling for the reopening of consideration of the Newnes Plateau option. A number of HHAG members put questions to council/mayor calling for the reopening of consideration of the Newnes option, rail over road, safety on the highway and high productivity freight vehicles. The original motion was defeated with a modified motion calling for the Newnes option to be properly considered in the Central West Transport Needs Study and asking the RTA to expedite its decision on a route through the Hartley Valley. On the same night, John James as a committee member of HHAG attended and spoke in support of HHAG objectives at the 11th May Lawson Community Meeting held to inform lower Blue Mountains residents regarding the issue of high productivity road freight vehicles transiting the mountains. One of the interesting features of that meeting was a heavy truck driver speaking from the audience supporting the ‘No B Doubles through the Mountains’ call.

RTA Workshops 16th and 23rd May and 13th June to work on setting routes through corridors proceeded with residents from Mt Victoria and Hartley valley that had volunteered to participate. Whilst we agreed that HHAG would take no specific role in promoting one corridor or another, a number of members of the committee attended the meetings out of interest and to feed back information on what is happening to the committee. The first day’s meetings seemed dominated by a consensus that the highway should generally stick to the current route and a feeling of frustration by all that their involvement in the process was futile. Subsequent workshops involved consideration of various theoretical routes through the valley proposed by the RTA. Subsequent to the third workshop HHAG has written to the RTA protesting several aspects of the workshop program and the pursuit of any new route through the valley.

On 22nd May Centroc Protest: a group of some twenty protesters turned out at the Centroc mayors’ conference at Bathurst in anticipation of Mr Debus’ attendance to deliver his mid term report to the assembled mayors. We were not able to speak to Mr Debus directly however we did achieve useful publicity for the broader cause with coverage by both Win and Prime television. Mt Victoria Public Meeting 27th May was attended by Mr Phil Koperberg . Attendee participation was restricted to Mt Victoria residents and parochial resolutions were passed seeking the by pass of Mt Victoria and resolving their preference for the Purple and Green corridors. We are seeking to promote a broader strategy commitment to the Mt Victoria committee.

To our surprise, a Lithgow Council Meeting 1st June resolution was passed announcing councils support of the orange corridor as the council’s preferred route option.

On 2nd June we wrote to Mr Debus in strong terms seeking his support for the reopening of the Newnes option and decrying a number of assertions he had made to us.

The 6th June presented an unexpected development with the announcement of Mr Debus’ intent to step down from politics at the end of this term (ie that could be later this year). With this seat held with only a 7% margin and that heavily dependent on green preferences, this development can be used to create some real focus on our concerns.

On 7th June, some HHAG members met with other community representatives from across the Blue Mountains and resolved to call a meeting in July to establish an overarching organisation to protest the issue of heavy freight vehicles transiting the Blue Mountains. One anecdote from the 7th June meeting; one of the participants suggested the proposition, that if the highway through Hartley was left as is, with just safety improvements effected, their B double concern would be alleviated. A follow up meeting with a dozen or more Blue Mountains community organisations is planned for 13th July.

On 10th June Community Cabinet Bathurst a HHAG deputation attended the NSW Cabinet forum in Bathurst. We met with Minister Daley to call for proper reconsideration of a Newnes option and a 25/6 metre B double ban in the mountains. Individually or in pairs we subsequently met with ministers Campbell, Keneally, Tebbut and McKay. We also attended the public forum and Dennis Plink questioned the premier on the government’s strategic planning leadership. A chance meeting with local state member Gerard Martin led to the public meeting proposal headlined in this newsletter.

Whilst all this has been happening, we have started a debate on the committee to clarify our strategy going forward in the event we are unsuccessful in having the Newnes option reconsidered. The objective of this exercise is to distil what it is we would seek if asked by government in a very direct fashion “what do we want”. We will publish the substance of these considerations in due course to promote thought and feedback of your views, but please don’t wait for our thoughts to be published; if you have views please let us know by emailing the Secretary of HHAG Lynda Lovegrove or making direct contact with any member of the committee.

Since our 2nd May meeting the committee has met on two occasions. Changes on the committee since that date have included the appointment of Ramsay Moodie as Chairman, after a great first year’s leadership of the committee by David Peters; the appointment of Milton Kingsley as Deputy Chairman and the resignation of Ian Townsend a founding member of the committee. I have written to thank Ian on behalf of the community for his contribution to the work of the committee.

Ramsay Moodie
Chairman 3rd July 2009
63552259 0412 283800 99830134

Notice of Community Meeting

Hartley School Hall
Saturday 2nd May
7.30 to 9.30 pm

Invitation to the Hartley Community to hear the most up-to-date information on the government proposal for a super highway through the valley, to discuss how the community should defend the valley from massive damage, and to agree on actions to be taken by the Hartley Highway Action Group.

Everyone welcome

The Federal Member Bob Debus and the NSW State Government are promoting a massive, half-billion-dollar road construction project through the Hartley Valley, with the objective of enabling heavy road freight to avoid the Victoria Pass and River Lett Hill.

The Hartley Highway Action Group Committee believes that this specific objective could be achieved most effectively, and in the most sustainable way, by connecting the Darling Causeway to the Great Western Highway at Marrangaroo via a new route across the Newnes Plateau.

The Hartley Highway Action Group Committee believes that the current proposal is short-term and short-sighted.  Wheat, coal and other commodities should be carried by rail rather than road.  Building bigger roads for larger trucks adversely affects communities in Hartley and the Blue Mountains, damages the environment and fails to deliver the only sustainable long-term solution for heavy freight.

Since our last newsletter in January, the Hartley Highway Action Group Committee (HHAG) has met on four occasions. In that time a founding member of the committee John Trehy has resigned due to other commitments. On behalf of the community we thank John for his contribution. Maintaining our strength Jeremy Dawkins who has a wide experience as a leader in state planning, has joined us.

It is now twelve months since the formation of the committee at a public meeting last May. At that meeting and one following we were instructed by the community to ”represent the community and report back to community before any critical decisions are made by RTA.”

Since that time much has been done  to drive protest and support the alternate Newnes plateau option. Meetings with politicians, numerous letters, much debate on strategy and the establishment of a website and a major report length submission to the RTA on their route proposals. We have published four newsletters and distributed them to four hundred homes in the valley to update the community, we developed letter writing resources to facilitate community protest and worked on the promotion of our cause to the press and other interest groups. We have also worked with other groups with contrary agendas to introduce our issues to them, to understand  their points of view and to look for common ground that we could build relationships on in order to find greater political traction on our issue.

In this time we have also got a much better insight into what this upgrade is really about. The agenda is primarily about providing access to Sydney for trucks that are larger than those currently allowed to use the highway over the mountains, and in far greater numbers than at present. On any route through the valley, these monsters will impact enormously on everyone who uses the highway (either to the west or to Sydney) together with landowners located adjacent to the road.

Two weeks ago we heard the announcement of the shelving of the Newnes plateau option and since then have heard the reasoning from the RTA as to how the army’s objection has frustrated this option. We have a right to be very angry that an issue like this that should have been determined at day one has been used to “trump the interests of Hartley”. We have not accepted this as the end of this option. Be assured that many groups including ourselves, the Bells Line of Road Group and others will continue to lobby against this decision. Everyone needs to continue to push for a Newnes route.

We now also need to move this battle onto a new footing. On the one hand we need to protest the dropping of the Newnes option, on the other we need to continue to build support in the mountains for a protest based on safety, environmental and sustainability grounds – no monster trucks through the Blue Mountains;  the protection of our valley will be a part of the cause, but supported by a much larger voter block ie the Blue Mountains. As HHAG works on those items, as a community we need to engage with the RTA’s route determination process.

It is well worth remembering that the primary reason for this “upgrade” is to facilitate the movement of 26M Three-section B-Double trucks (so-called “high productivity” trucks) from Western New South Wales to Sydney. Due to safety and amenity these trucks are banned from a great number of towns right across Australia, yet it is proposed that we live and drive with them every day. Stopping these monsters and diverting the freight to rail will go a long way towards negating the reason for this upgrade- allowing the RTA to do what they should be doing: keeping the Great Western Highway safe for all of us- not just profitable for commercial interests!

The RTA’s decision on a route through the valley will be difficult for the whole community. Some will benefit, others will be disadvantaged. Philosophically, if we have to have a super highway  running through the valley, staying in the current corridor may be the most equitable option. On the other hand such a decision by the RTA, while protecting some heritage assets will not protect others.  We all agree that this is a short term and inappropriate solution for heavy freight and will destroy our valley- the most historic valley in Australia.

There are going to be many complex trade offs being made by the RTA. We may be able to exert some degree of communal influence on the process through the committee. On the other hand many on the committee, including myself, own property that may be affected by the road, creating conflicts of interest. We need to work around these issues because there is much that we can do as a committee representing the community.

We need discussion on a number of points including:

• How much do we want to delay the process? In the long term a delaying strategy will deliver the best outcome for the whole valley. On the other hand we appreciate that people want to get on with their lives.
• We have been actively building support from other groups in the Mountains. We would like your support for this strategy.
• Whilst we are still adamant that there will be no additional road through the valley, we need to start talking about the issues that are going to emerge in the RTA’s route options process.

We have scheduled a meeting at the Hartley School hall 7.30pm Saturday 2nd May because we need to hear your thoughts on what we should be doing.

We are working to represent you.

Please try to join us for this important meeting.

David Peters
Chairman HHAG Committee
20th April 2009