Battle over Bondi Road clearway

BY PAM WALKER
A major rally will block Bondi Road at 3pm on Saturday December 6 to protest the introduction of a clearway on weekends and public holidays throughout summer.

And rumours suggest the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) will have towtrucks and police ready to respond.

Despite strong community, council and business opposition to the plan, the RTA has given the State Transit Authority (STA) the green light to introduce a westbound weekend and public holiday clearway along Bondi Road between Sandridge Street and Council Street from 3pm to 7pm.

Waverley Council was not officially informed of the decision but found out from Bondi Rd residents who were notified by a letter drop, and from Coogee MP Paul Pearce who had been asked to distribute the letter but refused. Mr Pearce wrote to residents this week expressing his opposition to the clearway.

Mayor Sally Betts said she was shocked the RTA would impose such a restrictive condition without consultation during the peak tourist season for Bondi Beach.

‘We would be stretched to find the additional necessary resources to enforce this new restriction,’ she said. ‘I’m appalled at their complete lack of consideration of council, businesses and residents. The impact is going to be astronomical: businesses will lose money, and residents and all those people who come to Waverley Oval to play sport over the holidays will have nowhere to park.’

The mayor said signage was usually put up two weeks before changes to parking restrictions but in this case went up only days before the trial was to commence.

Transport Minister David Campbell said he had met with Mr Pearce on this issue.
‘During that meeting Mr Pearce raised with me the concerns of some business owners along Bondi Road,’ he said. ‘This is a trial and we need to run it in order to evaluate it. As part of this process, however, I will also consider the merit of any other measures put forward to ease traffic congestion.’

But the Coogee MP said only traffic flow would be assessed after the trial.
‘That to me is totally unacceptable. This clearway will be extremely detrimental to local traders and to my constituents,’ Mr Pearce said. ‘I fail to see the benefit. By removing parking you’re going to put a lot of shops out of business. Also, a lot of residents don’t have off-street parking. They just don’t understand there is nowhere to park in that area.
‘Neither residents nor traders are particularly concerned about traffic congestion on Bondi Rd. There will be protest action against this and I’ve made it clear that if they insist on going ahead, they’ll have one of our members standing on the road and that won’t be a good look.’
Mr Pearce said bus drivers were pressured to keep to a timetable and that was causing problems. ‘If the timetable is unreasonable, readjust the timetable,’ he said.

Bondi Chamber of Commerce vice president Max Siano said the RTA was holding the Waverley community in contempt. The Chamber is considering a class action.
‘How dare an unelected body force this sort of detrimental decision on a community’ It will ruin the businesses in the area and it’s downright undemocratic,’ Mr Siano said.

An RTA spokesperson said the RTA was acting on advice from the State Transit Authority, to ease congestion and improve running times for buses travelling from Bondi Beach to Bondi Junction.

The spokesperson said a Waverley Council workshop held in February, attended by all stakeholders, was ‘inconclusive as the meeting digressed from the clearway proposal for Bondi Rd into other issues’.

‘In the meantime, congestion has worsened and in September, the STA reported late running services along the Bondi Rd corridor,’ the spokesperson said. ‘It is not uncommon for some bus services to take nearly 20 minutes to travel just 800 metres on Campbell Parade between Beach Road and Sandridge Street. The STA believes traffic delays will worsen over summer.’

A strategy meeting held on Wednesday morning was attended by local traders, the Bondi Chamber of Commerce, Mr Pearce, Mayor Sally Betts, former Waverley mayor Ingrid Strewe and Shadow Small Business and Tourism Minister Don Page.