weekender the inner city FRI 12 DEC 2014 • Issue 217
Printed on 100% recycled paper
Babylon to Byron
PROUDLY INDEPENDENT
Christmas fun Chamber of Commerce Christmas entertainment and activities p.8-9
No beer with Duncan Roads Minister to skip anti WestConnex event in St Peters this weekend CHRIS CONNOLLY
We catch up with David Gray p.19
New home for monument p.11
Try our crosswords! Brain benders to keep you puzzled p.18
Victoria Park Pool
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T
he Town and Country Hotel in St Peters was made famous in Slim Dusty’s song, ‘I Love To Have A Beer With Duncan’. Now it’s under threat from the proposed WestConnex Motorway. The organisers of an anti WestConnex festival in St Peters this weekend say they have invited Roads Minister Duncan Gay to a singalong of the famous song outside the Town and Country this Saturday at 4pm. Minister Gay said he would be unable to attend as he had a prior commitment to have a beer with Duncan in Crookwell but was always willing to listen to legitimate concerns. The Reclaim the Streets festival will begin at 1pm in Simpson Park and will also see the closure of Campbell Street. It will feature 40 DJs and eight bands and will be headlined by ARIA award winner Paul Mac. The festival will also include a kid’s space with face painting, bubbles, chalking competition, mural painting and a Jumping Castle. Organiser Chris Lego said the protest is about showing what the space could be used for instead of being dominated by cars. “We’d love to have a beer with Duncan and help him understand what a bad idea this is and promise in person to resist it at every step of the way until it’s scrapped and replaced with something brave and visionary,” Mr Lego said. Janet Dandy-Ward from the WestConnex Action
Children from St Peters Public School protesting the WestConnex near Simpson Park Group said she doesn’t think King Street in Newtown will survive the project as it will need to become a clearway like Parramatta Road to handle the traffic and that could be the death of it. “Inner West residents are vehemently opposed to this phoney project that fails to solve traffic congestion, and will completely change the face of key suburbs from Newtown to Alexandria and down to Rockdale,” Ms Dandy-Ward said.
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“The Government is playing with our health by wanting an LA-style spaghetti interchange layered over high density living, with smoke stacks spewing pollution over us creating a perma-haze of grey skies.” More than 2000 residents are expected to attend and the organisers say Marrickville Mayor Mark Gardiner and other local politicians have indicated they will be joining them.
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