Waterloo
Metro Quarter railroads public housing tenants
A draft master
plan for above the new Waterloo station, styled the Metro Quarter, starts a
three-week exhibition from today, in direct contradiction of undertakings given
to public housing tenants that they would not be rushed into commenting on the
master plan. The plan will be revealed at a community information session at
Redfern Town Hall at 5pm today and on www.ugdc.nsw.gov.au/metroquarter.
Tenants
negotiated for a 6-8 week gap between the release of a visioning report and key
study summaries and the start of master plan comment. The gap was for capacity
building and study groups, so public tenants could understand the complex
issues dealt with in the master plan and make informed comments.
Transport for
NSW and UrbanGrowth have decoupled planning of the Metro Quarter from the
planning for Waterloo estate to speed up approvals for the Metro Quarter so
they can deliver it well in advance of the metro trains. Railroading
undertakings to tenants in the process.
Capacity
building will now conflict with the exhibition. A pre-arranged mapping workshop
now comes after the two Metro Quarter information sessions. Government run
study groups on nine key consultant reports will not be delivered until after
the metro exhibition they were intended to inform.
While
government says the two plans still mesh, the Metro Quarter plan will be
submitted mid-July, just after the start of the three month engagement on the
Estate Master Plan. Issues such as whether community and medical facilities
should be located on the estate or at the station cannot be worked out with the
community before submission. To the extent possible for the Metro it will need
to be dealt with in the formal Metro exhibition.
Getting public
housing tenants engaged over the redevelopment has been difficult as few trust
that the government works in their interest. They point to problems with basic
maintenance, tenancy issues and a miss-handled redevelopment push in 2011 as
evidence that the government rides rough shod over them. The breaking of the
agreement about how consultation was to take place has encouraged the “I told
you so” response from the sceptics, and left those who did participate feeling
angry and betrayed.
So far, the
community visioning engagement and the consultant studies have happened across
both sites. The public housing estate owner, Land and Housing Corporation
(LAHC), has had responsibility for handling engagement for both sites on behalf
of all the government agencies. The estate owner says it will honour its
commitments to tenants for the estate master plan.
The agreement
about engagement, between tenants and LAHC for the government, was made with
the elected tenant representatives of the Waterloo Neighbourhood Advisory Board
(NAB) through its Waterloo Redevelopment Group. Supporting non-government
organisations were also involved in getting the agreement. Some of these
organisations receive funding to support tenants through the redevelopment
process so they can meaningfully participate. Tenants and agencies are all
angry with the government reneging on the agreement for the Metro Quarter site.
Counterpoint
Community Services and Inner Sydney Voice both have projects funded to assist
public housing tenants during the redevelopment. Together with long-time local
resident group REDWatch they are also working with government to deliver a
Waterloo human service plan to address the people issues of public housing to
sit alongside the built environment master plan. Statements from these agencies
are below.
For more
information Contact: Geoffrey
Turnbull – Publications Officer Inner Sydney Voice isv@innersydneyvoice.org.au
Supporting
comments:
Charmaine
jones, the Executive Officer of Inner Sydney Voice, who is funded to provide
support and capacity building for public tenants, including in Waterloo said:
“It has taken a
lot of hard work to bring the community along on this latest ‘redevelopment’
journey, given the high levels of apathy due to previous ‘planning’ ideas
having never led anywhere. The community was promised that this time would be
different. As an NGO, we took the government at its word and encouraged the
community to participate in the visioning and planning processes because we had
seen indications that this time it would indeed be different – that this time
there would be a respectful, transparent dialogue with the community and some
integrity behind the consultation with the community. Commitments were made and
undertakings given. When community is ignored, it is not only government’s
integrity that suffers, but ours as well. We spend many hours building trust
and relationships within the community and in one fell swoop, government
destroys it”.
Michael
Shreenan, the Executive Office of Counterpoint Community Services, runs The
Factory Community Centre and Counterpoint Multicultural on the edge of the
estate. It is also funded to support the community. He said:
“Whilst the
LAHC process for the rest of the estate so far has been better than
anticipated; Political and economic pressure from other departments and
Ministers has overridden the agreed principle to ensure adequate community
participation in and ownership of the process.
Separating the
Metro Quarter from what was supposed to be an integrated consultation process
across the Waterloo Estate is just unacceptable. Was the alleged collaborative
approach by government departments to this redevelopment just a well-marketed
façade? Through this ill-considered manoeuvre, any trust by the community was
eroded by the government’s backtracking on its undertakings. This has undone a
lot of good work that has been undertaken to date.
It is
ridiculous by any standard to only give three weeks to ‘consultation’ for
social housing residents on the most significant part of the redevelopment, it
is more condensed than a tin of Heinz soup.
Their talk
about social housing residents ‘being hard to reach and engage’, hides the
reality is it easier for government to ignore them than is to make sure that
they have equality and ownership over any planning process that effects their
community. By rushing the process and separating out the Sydney metro quarter
from the agreed consultation process this is exactly what government is
perceived to be doing by the community.”
Alice
Anderson, the co-spokesperson for long-time residents group REDWatch said:
“The focus of
the planning system is supposed to have moved to getting people involved early
in the planning process, which is the stage that is happening now in Waterloo.
Public housing however is not your average community; it is the place where
government concentrates vulnerable people. As a result, there is a greater need
for capacity building and for time for public tenants to have their say about
complex things like planning.
When
UrbanGrowth and Transport for NSW over ride agreements negotiated with
communities about how they will have their say, it ruins the trust in the
planning system and disenfranchises those who are supposed to have a say at the
beginning of the process. Denied the opportunity for input at the start of the
process, government and developers should not complain about opposition and
“NIMBY” behaviour further down the track.”
Media
release ends