The next meeting of the Alexandria Residents Action Group will be

• 7pm, Wednesday 9 March,
• at Alexandria Town Hall, Garden St.

On the agenda:

• Alexandria Sunday Fun Day, Alexandria Park, 20 March, 11am to 3pm
• WestConnex and Mirvac’s development proposal for the ATP – what now?

Alexandria Sunday Fun Day will have: jumping castle, rides, arts and craft, the fire brigade, competitions, prizes and giveaways, Rabbitoh’s footy skills, basketball fun, bike polo, a sausage sizzle, stalls, a doggie parade and competition, the trash and treasure blanket sale and more.

For information, visit http://alexandriasundayfunday.com.au/

On a less cheerful note, the WestConnex M4 EIS has been approved – and immediately there have been major changes announced.

Objections to the WestConnex M5 (which is the one that will have an immediate impact on us) have closed, as have objections to the Mirvac Development Application for the Australian Tech Park.

But this doesn’t mean it’s over.

WestConnex doesn’t add up. It doesn’t solve the problems it’s supposed to solve. It won’t make commuting faster, and it won’t help move freight – it doesn’t even connect to the port or to either airport. It will make commuting more expensive, it will create more congestion on roads that are already congested, and it will cost the taxpayer dearly – up to $16 billion, or more. That’s a message we need to keep pushing, and we will.

The ATP proposal isn’t much better. It’s supposed to create new jobs, but when you drill into it, all it actually does is relocate existing jobs from out West, where they are badly needed, into the inner city, but without the improvements to transport infrastructure that will be needed to get people to these jobs.

Hope to see you Wednesday.