Chanting “we feel Frank’s pain”, the group said
they understood why. Mr Sartor’s wife Monique Flannery was fighting a much
smaller development behind the couple’s Beverley Park home.
But the protesters said that while Ms Flannery can fight
that development at local council level, they are unable to do the same as Mr
Sartor has seized control of the approval process over the development which
will affect their suburb of Putney.
The Daily Telegraph
revealed last month that Ms. Flannery had lodged objections to a 74-apartment,
four-storey development on the grounds of extra traffic and loss of privacy.
The protesters, from the Coalition Against Private Over-development,
said they also faced the loss of their tranquillity but the Putney development
would add 10 times as many cars to the area than the one at the back of the
Sartor house.
Legislation introduced by Mr Sartor this year allows the
planning minister to seize power from local councils and appoint administrators
for councils deemed too slow to assess applications.
Using a megaphone outside Mr Sartor’s house yesterday, CAPO
chairman Rolf Clapham shouted: “We feel your pain, Frank. There’s no place
for a four-storey development behind your house -we support your wife’s fight
to stop it.
“We wish you could feel our, pain. We wish you would,
support our fight against a much bigger development in our backyards.
“Instead of the 448 extra cars that will go on the road
near your place, we’ll have an 4500 extra cars.”
CAPO and other residents in the Ryde area believe Sartor has
not listened to them Mr regarding the planned development at the Royal
Rehabilitation Centre site in Putney.
“We are not opposed to any development, we are just
saying the planned one is too big,” Mr Clapham said.
“But Frank Sartor is too arrogant to listen, he has
made up his mind.”
Mr Clapham also blamed Ryde MP and Deputy Premier John
Watkins for doing nothing to stop the project even though it borders his seat.
“The impact of the development will be felt by all the
people living in John Watkins’ seat, yet he is doing nothing about it. He needs
to show some backbone because if this goes ahead, traffic win clog up Ryde,”
he said.
Photos: Protest… families against an 800-house development
demonstrate outside the home of Planning Minister Frank Sartor (top right)
yesterday. Picture ADAM WARD
[The Daily Telegraph July 24 2006 p6]