Park Ruined and No Access

FOR many years Sarah Howie has been part of a working group which wants to improve Elizabeth Park.

However, the Park and their progress have been hanging in limbo while discussions of bypasses and overpasses continued.

Tomorrow the RMS is holding the first of three community consultations to hear feedback on the final bypass design and the initial designs for the rail overpass.

Sarah said she is dismayed by the Roads and Maritime Service’s proposal to send semi-trailers through the Park and move the mare and foal sculpture in front of the toilet block.

“We had filled in the culvert in Elizabeth Park to make the area more usable and we’ve been working on some fantastic designs with an urban designer to really make the park so much better, but the Park could be completely unusable,” said Mrs Howey.

The design option to have the rail bridge on Kelly Street near Elizabeth Park includes extending Muffett Street through the back of Elizabeth Park, so that heavy vehicles would encircle the Park.

“It would make the Park unusable, who would stop in a park with trucks circling around them?” she questions.

“It would be terrible for the visitor information centre too, they’d probably have to be moved somewhere else and we’d have no Park,” she said.

“In previous plans they have talked about only losing six feet of the Park around the edge, which would mean losing all of the full grown trees next to the road and they suggested we put the Foal Sculpture in front of the toilet block.

“The overpass would need to be extra tall here for the double-deckers full of cattle coming in and out of Muffett Street, so from the initial designs it will be much bigger.

“The roundabout will also take out Coronation Park where the rough rider memorial is.

“It would make our only real Park unusable and it is such a popular spot, so many visitors and locals use the Park.

“People won’t call into Scone and stop to exercise their dogs, let their children play and stretch their legs.

“They won’t call in here they’ll just keep going,” she said.

“I’m just so passionate about what we can do in this space, we could make it something really great,” Sarah Howey said.

Sarah lamented the many ideas the group had for the Park which would all be gone along with the Park if the rail bridge went in.

No Access

As Sarah and her husband Bill looked at the RMS plans they also realised they and their neighbours would no longer have street access to their homes.

“Hang on, the access to our house would be blocked and the two next door!” exclaimed Sarah Howey.

“We won’t be able to turn left into Kelly Street to get into our driveways,” she said.

The first they learnt of the new design was when the RMS flyer landed in their letterbox.

The homes impacted are on Kelly Street near Scone Rural Supplies.

Residents currently can not access their driveways driving north on Kelly Street, so they drive around the block and from Muffett Street and turn left into Kelly Street.

However, the proposed design by the RMS would block them from all access to the front of their homes.

When asked what they would do they said they would fight to keep Elizabeth Park and hope that the RMS saw sense for them to get access to their driveways.

“We just can’t afford to let this go,” said Sarah.

“We only get one chance to get this right and people have to tell the RMS it’s not good enough,” she said.

“The bypass is going ahead and we need to make sure the entrances have round-a-bouts at them, but we can’t lose Elizabeth Park in the process,” Sarah Howey said.

Related articles: Council Frustrated by RMS, Rail Bridge Options and Bypass Progress.

The RMS is holding community consultation sessions at the Scone Motor Inn at the following times:

• January 21, 3pm – 7pm;
• February 4, 3pm – 7pm and
• February 5, 10am – 2pm.

Simply click on the date to view full details in our Community Calendar.