Werrington County residents are once again fighting a $4 million development next to their homes that will bring late night weekend functions and increased traffic.
A development application (DA) was submitted to Penrith City Council this month to build a recreational facility on John Oxley Avenue, that included a sport centre, bowling alley, gym and function centre.
Penrith Councillor and State Member for Londonderry, Prue Car alerted residents who had campaigned against an almost identical DA in June last year, and said previous concerns have not been alleviated.
“Those concerns, they still remain,” Ms Car told the Weekender.
“Really legitimate concerns from residents are about traffic, are about safety, and that it doesn’t really fit in with the community here in Werrington County.”
Mr Car said Dunheved Road is already a nightmare for motorists with serious accidents occurring around Werrington County Shopping Centre and difficulties turning on to John Oxley Avenue.
“It’s already an ongoing fight with the Government to give us some money to improve that intersection and a development like this will put more people on this road without fixing that area,” she said.
“The last thing we should be doing is putting hundreds and hundreds more people on Dunheved Road.”
The new DA has reduced the number of car spaces from 264 to 158, increased the set back from the road and reduced the number of function rooms to one with a maximum of 250 people.
Kylie Watts will live right next to the recreational facility if the development goes ahead.
Ms Watts is concerned about the noise from a development and building the community doesn’t need.
“I work from home, so I’m worried about noise from the get-go – the demolition, the building – and once it’s built if there are functions,” she said.
“We live right next door to it, we don’t want to be living right next to that.
“If it’s something that we really needed then we would take it into consideration, but we’ve got these facilities around us already, we don’t need it.”
The DA proposed the indoor facility will be open from 7am until 10pm Monday to Sunday, with the function centre opening from 11am until 10pm Sunday to Thursday, and then until midnight Friday and Saturday.
Ms Car said residents have until July 6 to make submissions to Council, however, she will ask Council to extend the time period.
– Dale Drinkwater
Weekender Newsroom
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