Northern Beaches Hospital Concept & Stage 1

Far too much time has been spent talking about this hospital an d no action so far. Lets get on with it NOW. Start digging the hole, and build

this planned hospital in Frenchs forest is bad plan/idea made by incompetent people in all tiers of state goverment/ departments.It will ruin Frenchs forest .Frenchs forest is a residential area.The hospital plan is completely alien to the area.The impact on local residents is enormous.The noise of helicopters taking off and landing at all hours of the day/night.Changes to the road.Increased traffic/vehical volumes.Increased air pollution and numerous other impacts on the area. I /we bought a home in this area in 2005 without any knowledge of a planned hospital.I would not have bought if i had knew.There is far more suitable places for a northern beaches hospital. Terry Hills comes to mind.If previous state goverments had built the dee why to st ives road corridor we would have a low gradient road into the norther beaches and would have taken much of the traffic load off warringah rd. You people in goverment departments dont listen or care about local residents and the affects this ludicrous plan will do to us.As with all new things i am sure there are people who love the idea of hospital in frenchs forest. In my view i can not see any positives for the area!

Dear Peter
Overall I support the proposal in principle but raise significant concerns regarding TRAFFIC.
As recognised in the Traffic Report, the existing road network cannot cope with current peak flows, particularly with respect to junction performance (with scores of F). It is further acknowledged that these junctions will not cope at all with the anticipated traffic generation or 900 trips in peak hours.
The EIS suggests that plans are being worked on by the RMS to improve the local road network and will be included at the Stage 2 application.
My point is, without appropriate, and what will have to be quite bold, road improvements, the development would not be feasible and Stage 1 approval (including site clearance) would be premature and should not be granted until this key issue is sorted out.

This is my view as a local resident, already impacted upon by poor peak traffic circulation. I may make a separate submission on further matters as Director of Evolution Planning.
Regards,
Tony Robb

I object to the location of this hospital-12 km.s away form the population it is to serve.The northern beaches hospital should be at Mona vale.where there is plenty of land for upgrading the present hospital without the destruction of threatened species and the loss of animal corridor which will occur on the proposed site. i believe the projected costs of the necessary road works will far outstrip the cost of upgrading MVDH Both Hornsby hospital and the SAN are upgrading with new operating theatres and 200 more beds at around $181 million each. I object to the use of public land by private enterprise. i am afraid that the proposed private hospital will result in no more public beds than we presently have in MVDH and Manly set to close when the F.f hospital is open I believe we need more public beds with the number of aging increasing. I am also afraid that the loss of birthing units in the heart of the community will result in a return to home birthing and there is not the proper professional back up available in emergency to support this. I am fearful of the distances required by ambulances to travel up one lane roads for those north of the bends will result in increase loss of life. North shore hospital has been renovated at great cost and is still understaffed so is not being used to capacity and it is only 10 K down the road from the proposed F.F site. I object that the people of the Northern Beaches have been ignored by their representatives. A petition of nearly 11,000 residents of the Northern beaches asking for publication of a feasibility study on up grading MVDH was tabled in parliament but not read out. nor discussed ! In fact there was only a handful of members in the parliament at the time The people in the public gallery were told we didn't know what we needed or wanted. only the politicians could know that !Recent published evidence sites a view out the window as one of the most healing factors and this available at Mona Vale and Manly hospitals but not F.f when this large tract of bush-land is covered in concrete and glass high rise.!

I would like further information on the surrounding infrastructure and impact to local residents. Will the residential area adjacent to the hospital be rezoned? If so, what area is proposed for rezoning and what are the timeframes.

With this submission I would like to object to the construction of the Northern Beaches Hospital on the proposed site in Frenchs Forest.
My objections are based on

1. Environmental protection
2. Traffic and Sustainability
3. Social justice, Community Needs



Before I go into the 3 points, I would like to voice my disappointment with this process of consultation
The official gazette for submissions was not published until
30th Oct, one day into the submission period which is only 30 days. That is not long enough considering how much material has only now been published.
Furthermore, this ad could easily be overlooked and is difficult to read, e.g. the relevant webpage link is hiding in very small print 3/4 down the ad.

The complexity and the volume of the material is a direct result of having kept us in the dark for years.
Residents on the Northern Beaches have long been asking for studies to be carried out and published for the Frenchs Forest site, in vain.

1.Environmental Protection:
No Environmental Impact Studies had been published until now, despite the well known fact of several threatened species being sighted in and around this precious remnant of the Duffy's Forest Ecological Community.
It is not good enough to list only some foraging animals such as the Powerful Owl and the Grey-faced Fruit Bat and not mention the Warringah Council's studies which list sightings of several threatened species, such as the Southern Brown Bandicoot, the Glossy Black Cockatoo, and even the likelihood of a Spotted Quoll using the site.
Even if there haven't been any recent sightings, the possibility of potential habitat needs to be taken into account.
The most important misconception, however, is that a wildlife corridor can be bio-banked or off-set. How could the Swamp Wallabies and Sugar Gliders who travel from Kurringai Chase to Manly Dam and Narrabeen Catchment find out about a detour via Belrose? They will be even more disoriented than now, when the roadkill has already increased through the site's fencing.

2. Traffic / Sustainability:
Neither had there been any traffic studies modelled on future traffic conditions, let alone costing for suggested solutions.
Even now, that a study has been published, it only shows the obvious: The traffic conditions are already catastrophic.
Solutions and costing hinge on the outcome of what the private hospital operator will agree to.
No detailed plans for public transport infrastructure have been published, a fact which, in the light of sustainability, is incomprehensible.
Will this government accept their own projections that there will be around 20% more private car traffic?

3. Social Justice for the Community:
There are no financial studies showing cost effectiveness of rebuilding plus upgrading Mona Vale Hospital and retaining plus renovating Manly Hospital, compared to building a new one in the middle of a traffic gridlock and on a last remnant of delicate bush land which is a irreplaceable wild life corridor.
We will be losing already scarce public beds considering which are only going to be replaced, not increased to serve the increase in population
The less fortunate residents of the Northern Beaches who do not own a car or cannot afford private health insurance, will be discriminated against when it comes to sub-acute health services for which no ambulance is needed and local public hospitals are ideal.

Conclusion:
Now that we have seen some of the very generic studies, my question is:

How could a responsible government decide on such a highly sensitive site for a major project before all the facts were known?
I discovered one interesting forecast, though: Private car travel to the the Frenchs Forest site, with the new hospital in place, will increase from 69% to 82%.
I was not surprised to see that most of those will come from the direction of the northern part of the Northern Beaches.
So, why build a Frenchs Forest Hospital if we need one on the Northern Beaches?
Don't we have sites in already built-up areas with good access and public transport, from Mona Vale over Dee Why to Brookvale?
It probably is easier to build on a 'green site', however, what cost in terms of community values, sustainability and environmental issues will that incur?

Angelika Treichler

Hi i Object to the Northern Beaches hospital.
1. Conjugation too much Traffic
2. Not enough Parking
3. Value on my house Prices going up or down.

The planning process for a hospital at Frenchs Forest have still not addressed the major concerns of local residents:

- massive increases in traffic volumes on roads that are already heavily congested

- the threat to local wildlife and vegetation and

what will really happen with Manly and Mona Vale Hospitals?

The large development of this site means that any improvements to the surrounding roads and transport infrastructure will be negated. We are advised of large graded road works (which are pending?) to ease the congestion on the junction of Wakehurst Parkway and Warringah Road but these will not resolve the traffic issues created by the development of this site.

In fact the imposition of the site on the community will create more bottlenecks at either end of the Parkway and also along Warringah Road. No satisfactory solution has yet been proposed.

A ten storey hospital on this site and the resulting surrounding industrialisation of the area for supporting industries means a fundamental shift to full urbanisation and the industrifiying of the area.

I have noted the controversal decisions in the recommendation process, includng alternative sites and the costs of upgrading the Wakehurst Parkway,these appear to fallen on deaf ears, so whilst noting the site is to be developed reagrdless of community concerns it is incumbent on the Government to revisit the transport and traffic issues as the present proposals will merely create a replica of St Leonards hinterland without the advantage of a rail line to reduce the impact of traffic.

I am also concerned that such a large peice of infrastructure should effectively be given to private enterprise to finance and profit from, yet the tax payer is funding the infrastructure ostensibly to assist its development, which as mentioned above will negate any initial benefit provided by the upgraded road ways assuming this occurs before the work commences on the site.

I remain of the opinion the roads should be upgraded to permit better traffic flows and the upgrading of the Hospital at Mona Vale be reconsidered to encompass more services if only to lessen the impact a ten storey hospital will have on this site. In doing so two smaller hospitals can share and spread the effects rather than one over developed site. The suggested use of Mona Vale as proposed at present needs to be expanded to reduce the impact of this hospital.

Having been part of the health industry for over 20years, and having lived and worked within the hospital system on the northern beaches for 13years, I feel I have a reasonable appreciation for the quality of health services locally and within the NSW area and wider Australian networks.

In short - our area needs a new hospital at French's Forest to cope with increased population forecasts, limited/ restricted medical services offered currently and to raise the quality of health care available to all current and future northern beaches residents.

Infrastructure to support this large employer would need to be addressed, but please do not consider this task too difficult when we consider the ageing population and increasing child birth rate in Australia meaning if we do not act now, waiting lists will continue to blow out and we drop to limiting health care only to those who can afford it.

I object to the removal of the wildlife corridor at Frenchs Forest. I believe that you cannot offer an offset site of the same proportion which is is not linked to the existing.
Further to this hospital site I believe that it is on record that patients that expierence the beautiful surroundings at mona Vale hospital react positively during their recovery period.
Surlely the petition lodged to parliment [ over 10,000 sigs.]recently must indicate the residends feelings on this matter. I urge stongley to the state ministers concerned to reconsider this whole project and the huge cost involved as opposed to upgrading the existing facilities.

I vehemently object to plans to comprehensively clear the threatened "Duffy's Forest" vegetation at the proposed Hospital Site. This rare ecological community is listed under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995, and makes up only 4% of Warringah's total bushland. it is virtually non-existent elsewhere on the planet ! What's more, the vegetation on-site is especially scarce, is an "old growth" component of Duffy's forest and is just about the last place on the planet where it exists! Fauna on-site includes precious colonies of disappearing bandicoots, wallabies and sugar gliders. What makes this habitat even more important is that it is part of a vital wildlife corridor that links the Narrabeen catchment with Garigal National Park and Manly Warringah War Memorial Park. (plans to "biobank" this vital corridor elsewhere are inane and illogical. Warringah Council acceded to the "compulsory acquisition" of the land by the NSW Government at an extraordinary Council meeting on 25th June 2012 but only with the provision that "the Duffy's Forest Ecological Community be protected". The proposed site for Frenchs Forest hospital is a particular important part of Duffy's Forest Ecological Community as it contains species not presented on other parcels. The site is in very good condition with no weed infestation centrally. Because of the 'hilltop' location, no runoff has degraded the woodland, which results in its excellent condition and allows for easy preservation of the site as a viable ecological community and crucial wildlife corridor. It would be totally wrong to destroy this sensitive environmental jewel.

Surely this unique corridor can and must be conserved!

(A win win situation would be to upgrade Mona Vale and Manly Hospitals with plenty of suitable land already available, no environmental devastation, no traffic/road problems and two perfect locations already in existence).

Having been part of Council's evolvement first as Shire President at Brookvale Shire Hall and closely involved in development of Plans, Funding, and First Head of Council as Shire President for Current Building and from Architect to completion, occupying current premises I guess I could at least be heard and with an open mind and true and committed Warringah citizen.
I just love the enthusiasm and wonderful forward thinking of current Councillors and wish you all well in the task ahead.
KEEP US ALL INFORMED AND VERY BEST WISHES

I am not in favour of the hospital being built in Frenchs Forest for the following reasons:
1. Destruction of native habitat and a vital wildlife corridor;
2. Wakehurst Parkway has had vast amounts of money spent on it over the last twenty years for no effect - it still gets closed when it rains heavily. It is not a suitable arterial road for access to a hospital.
3. Any building greater than five storeys is totally inappropriate for the area and will ruin the character of the area.
4. It is an inappropriate location for residents at the northern end of the peninsula. The great need is for the re-building of Mona Vale hospital which would meet the needs of all residents of the northern beaches.
5. The proximity of a newly refurbished and rebuilt Royal North Shore Hospital to the Forest location confirms a new hospital is not required in this area.

I am not in favour of the hospital being built in Frenchs Forest for the following reasons:
1. Destruction of native habitat and a vital wildlife corridor;
2. Wakehurst Parkway has had vast amounts of money spent on it over the last twenty years for no effect - it still gets closed when it rains heavily. It is not a suitable arterial road for access to a hospital.
3. Any building greater than five storeys is totally inappropriate for the northern beaches area and will ruin the character of the area.
4. It is an inappropriate location for residents at the northern end of the peninsula. The great need is for the re-building of Mona Vale hospital which would meet the needs of all residents of the northern beaches.
5. The proximity of a newly refurbished and rebuilt Royal North Shore Hospital to the Forest location confirms a new hospital is not required in this area.

I oppose application 5982. Northern beaches hospital. Reasons:
Loss of bushland, its an eyesore, air pollution, overshadowing of surrounding area,noise pollution from extra traffic, ambulances etc, parking in residential areas for overflow from car park, light pollution at night time.
Wakehurst parkway and Warringah are already beyond their capacity, too much traffic so traffic problems will increase and become intolerable. The Wakehurst Parkway flood regularly, more traffic will cause gridlock on surrounding streets and other residential streets will be used as cut throughs causing more gridlock and danger for cars and pedestrians alike particularly for school children attending the local school, one of which is next door to the proposed site.Traffic will be at a stand still during school times. Substantial increase in traffic caused by those working at the hospital as well as those visiting plus there is a recognised population growth in the area which will cause traffic issues without the hospital. Public transport is poor in this area so will not be able to support the hospital.
The wildlife corridors between Narrabeen Lagoon, Manly Dam and Forestville Park will be destroyed.Destruction of endangered land. Loss of habitat for wildlife.
Provision of public beds is not enough for the needs of the community. Private hospitals primary concern is money making not provision of health care for everyone. The loss of existing and functioning hospitals, these service the community where the community need provision. This hospital is very close to the RNS hospital that head just been rebuilt, why build another so close.

I Support New Northern Beaches Hospital and very good Design how looks like.
issue too be raise
1 Why is hospital going be Private Why not Public.
2 How fix Wakehurst Parkway During Flooding
3There is a lot Traffic, and Parking big issue raise problem.
4 Move Frenchs Forest Police Station, too the Northern Beaches Hospital,Future Expansion.
5 Planning on Public Transport
6 What area are Rezoning, any House going be Demolish if going expend the Road from Frenchs Forest Road west, Sylvia Place
7Please Expand the Road at Wakehurst Parkway and build Carriage way.
8 Please Plant Native Trees around Hospital site not ugly looking Shrubs.
9 Upgrade the Roads very bad Condition.
10No Helicopter at Northern Beaches Hospital its be too Noising and wake up residents in middle Night.
Start Building the hospital as soon as Possible the better.

I oppose the State Significant Infrastructure Application No 5982for a 10 Storey NB Hospital.
The traffic and road access is currently at or beyond capacity. Wakehurst Parkway frequently is closed due to flooding. Last incident yesterday 18/11/13.
No major residential areas on North/ South axis of the site.
Site is literally too small to locate a major hospital and is restricted by major road intersections.
I request that Application 5982 be referred to Planning Assessment Committee.

I am extremely concerned about the proposed development of the hospital. A building of 10 stories high is completely out of character for the area and unacceptable. It is ludicrous to think that the Government will be able to build in this location without severely affecting the traffic in the area. There have been no plans made for traffic infrastructure. This area is already beyond capacity during peak hour times. Any attempt to build in this area without prior MAJOR infrastructure improvements will have a detrimental impact on this neighbourhood and all of the commuters who flow through this area on their way to the city or the North Shore. This is a beautiful, serene area of Sydney to live in but it is already at capacity and unable to sustain such an enormous building. There is no parking in the area as it is and the overflow from this building is unsustainable. This is a short-sighted and ill-considered plan and I completely object to it as a neighbour of the proposed site. If you have to force this monstrosity on us, please rezone our properties so that we can leave the area and find our current level of serenity somewhere else. I chose to live in this area because it is so beautiful - we have bush turkeys, echidnas - all sorts of native animals. I do not wish to live in an urban jungle.

I'm a local resident to the proposed hospital I oppose the construction on the following points:
* The stated high of a 10 storey building is totally out of character and at least double the height of anything for kilometres around. It will stand out like a planning eyesore on the top of the hill overshadowing the homes meters away on Frenchs forest road.
*The traffic is already grid locked on Frenchs Forest road for nearly 2 hours in the morning and afternoon peaks. As the traffic statement says the intersections are the fall down point but adding to that the single lane roads leading in and out won't cope. Having the major entrance off Frenchs Forest road delivers everything right to the grid locked point.
*The size of the car park isn't big enough to cope with what is required. It's fatal point will be putting a charge on parking which will force people into local streets. These street barely cope with the occasional school function let alone hundreds of cars daily trying to evade the car park fees.
* The shift completion that match's almost exactly the school finish time will insure afternoon chaos. Locking both French's Forest road police and ambulance services into the grid lock
* The idea of operating a large noisy helicopter next to a residential area and schooling environment is such bad planning on all levels.
*The general disruption to the high school during the construction period through noise and congestion can't be understated. As with the on going noise to the school from the proposed French's Road entrance.
*Warriewood's increasing size supports the case for a better hospital to be built there.
* Public transport in the area is hopeless and the concept of a percentage of staff using push bikes is laughable.
* Wakehurst parkway is regularly closed due to flooding blocking off access to the proposed hospital.
*The proposed hospital has insufficient public bed.
* The loss of the bush corridor.
Looking at it the area would be better served by the updating of the current hospitals at Manly and Mona Vale.