Friday, October 31, 2008

Highway 'Upgrades' used as Weapons of Torture for Rural Residents

3rd October, 2008.

The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) is using highway ‘upgrades’ as weapons of torture for residents of rural areas.

In 2005, with encouragement from tourism and transport industries, not necessarily limited to but including TTF – the Transport and Tourism Forum, the N.S.W. Government amended the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act to include a new section, Part 3A. Ostensibly a means of fast-tracking major infrastructure and other projects, Part 3A is designed to override other environmental Acts and to render community concerns ineffective.

This obstruction of protective measures which are meant to be enforced through other Government Acts combined with disempowerment of the people is being utilised by the RTA to facilitate highway ‘upgrade’ routes which maximise human devastation.

There are no rational reasons for the RTA’s use of these routes; they are not necessarily the cheapest to construct or the safest for road users. They do not necessarily reduce travel distance and may not even reduce travel time. But they all have one thing in common: they are sadistic.

Costing citizens millions of dollars in property devaluations, causing thousands of people to suffer from year round sleep deprivation and exposing human lives to toxic traffic fumes, these unnecessarily imposed routes are, in themselves, corrupt.

The voices of concerned people, some of whom have spent thousands of dollars and given up a large percentage of their lives battling against the RTA’s actions, can be found through internet searches for ‘rta corrupt’ plus, for example, Bulahdelah, Coffs Harbour, Murrumbateman (Barton Highway) and Tyagarah (near Byron Bay).

While the realities of ‘upgrades’ along the Pacific Highway in northern New South Wales are provided at the Pacific Highway Alliance website, there is currently not a central internet reference point for RTA-infected areas to the south. This blogspot attempts to rectify this and to also expose the RTA’s actions in those places where RTA-affected citizens do not have an internet voice of their own.

Contributions regarding these or any other places where the RTA is causing avoidable human suffering are welcome.

Bulahdelah, Coffs Harbour, Kempsey, Murrumbateman, Nerong, Tyagarah.

No comments: