Bourke Street bike battle goes to court

The City of Sydney claimed last week that a class action over the Bourke Road cycleway in Alexandria had collapsed when it was revealed that instead of representing 102 claimants, the action was on behalf of only one; the Hannan family who own a business park on the route. Council said it had found that some businesses listed among the original 102 knew nothing about the action.

But John Mahoney, lawyer for the Hannans (previous owners of the Courier magazines), says Council’s claims are just a smoke screen.

“To use a technical legal term; that’s bullshit,” he said. “Council is just using the classic tactic of playing the man, not the ball.”

A 4 – 5 page letter of demand had been sent to Council on 30 July asking Council to “remove the cycleway or we sue you for damages”. There were 102 names listed including Westpac Bank and the Australian Museum, both of whom had since denied involvement according to Council.

Mr Mahony hit back, saying “Council threatened some of the people on the list with withdrawal of Council work unless they desisted from the class action. This is an intimidatory and retaliatory Council.”

The names had been provided by the Bourke Road Cycleway Traffic Committee, a local group opposing the cycleway which had engaged Mr Mahony to launch the action.

“I’m satisfied that all those names listed were happy to be part of the action,” he said. “Maybe in some cases the support came from a local manager but there has been no communication with top management.

“But this makes no difference to the action – while a class action is in the interests of several parties, it will most likely represent one plaintiff only. It’s not practical to take a damages action for many plaintiffs as each would have different damages.”

The City of Sydney denied Mr Mahoney’s claims: “The City has written to Mr Mahony expressing our concern at the misrepresentations in his letters and we are considering whether further action should be taken. Comments suggesting the City intimidated organisations incorrectly listed as part of the ‘class action’ are completely untrue and without foundation.”

Mr Mahony said Bourke Road was the wrong route. A better route would run along the nearby Alexandria Canal, but Council had been “too lazy” to tackle that choice.

“We have a picture of Kristina Keneally standing on the canal when she was running for Heffron, saying the canal route would be built.”

But that route is not yet practicable, says Council: “The cycleway along Alexandra Canal is a long-term proposal dependent on the re-development of a number of privately owned sites that will take place over many years.”

Mr Mahoney said the two-way cycle route is unsafe for both cyclists and drivers, and will argue that Council did not properly address environmental impacts before building the cycleway.

“Environment includes everything – the effects on business, parking, safety and traffic,” Mr Mahony said.

“All the businesses along the route report a 30-50 percent loss of profits, even after taking into account temporary impacts during construction. It took me half an hour to find a parking spot when I first arrived.”

Many businesses relied on drop-in traffic, especially a cluster of shops near Doodie Street. There had also been additional flooding caused by the cycleway.

Council disagrees with this, replying that: “The City of Sydney is confident it has obtained all necessary approvals for the construction of the cycleway. Appropriate consideration was also given to environmental concerns such as vehicle safety, traffic impacts, stormwater and parking before construction commenced. There was also substantial consultation with the local community and businesses and other government authorities.”

Mr Mahoney said Council’s claims that the action had collapsed were irrelevant. The initial hearing before the Land and Environment Court would occur on 17 September.

“This is the real deal, not one of Council’s furphies,” said Mr Mahoney.

by Michael Gormly