SPECTATORS could be banned from parking in parkland outside the Sydney Cricket Ground and Aussie Stadium under a plan put forward by Sydney City Lord Mayor Clover Moore.
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,16536990-5001022,00.html
The Lord Mayor also labelled Sydney's public transport system the worst of any capital city in Australia, as she pushed for extended light rail services to areas close to the CBD.
The parklands parking ban would be similar to the restricted parking at Olympic Park, forcing visitors to use public transport.
In a submission to the parklands ruling body, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, Ms Moore said cars should be banned from parkland, or, as a last resort, an underground car park should be built to take pressure off the areas.
"The car parking causes inconvenience to patrons and gridlock to the area with enormous congestion," Ms Moore said yesterday.
"The area just seizes up whenever there's an event. We've got a really serious traffic problem there anyway (without events)."
Ms Moore also attacked developments adjoining the parklands, warning they would become congested concrete jungles unless greater park access was provided along with improved public transport.
Over the next 10 years the population of Redfern-Waterloo is expected to more than double, from 14,700 to 40,000.
The Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust, which governs the parks used for stadium parking, is due to release a draft masterplan next month.
Park assets director Ian Innes said parking and improving access across the parklands would be a feature of the master plan.
At present, during peak times Centennial Park is often shut to traffic.
"We've certainly acknowledged there are issues. We're just canvassing options now for Moore Park and how to manage demand for the parklands in the future," he said.
Ms Moore said cars had been banned during the Olympics and events had flowed smoothly.
During event periods, ten-minute journeys took as long as an hour, causing major disruption to people wishing to access the CBD.
In her submission, the Lord Mayor wrote that major events were becoming more frequent, causing degradation of parklands.
The stadiums should be required to meet their own needs for parking, rather than alienating critically-needed parkland. She said any underground car park should be located on the existing stadium car park site.
She said the Trust had an obsession with car parking and despite promises to stop it by 2002, it continued to be allowed, damaging playing surfaces.