Penrith Lakes
The proposal to expand Penrith Lakes by flooding the Castlereagh Quarries with water diverted from the stressed Nepean river, building thousands of new dwellings, ignoring the local council and letting the whole thing be done by private developers reads like a recipe for disaster.
This scheme will have enormous environmental implications (probably improving the environment around the quarries but at the cost of a depleted Nepean River and disturbed habitats), and, by privatising open space, implications for social justice and equality of access. There will also be wider effects. How will the region cope? The dangerous, two-lane Castlereagh Road will need substantial expansion. Public transport around Penrith isn’t exactly world-beating and if facilities in the area aren’t upgraded they will come under further stress.
What sort of dwellings and facilities will be constructed around the lakes? Will they be isolated, master-planned communities that segregate the wealthy? Will there be rampant commercial over-development by profit-maximising developers and a complacent state government that may offset any environmental benefits of constructing big wetlands? What about the long-term provision of services such as waste collection and libraries that the council is responsible for, if the council is given no say in the development process?
Analysis of any big scheme like this must be examined holistically, and important stakeholder groups should not be ignored. Such a development in the Sydney Basin would have large long-term social, economic and environmental consequences. Private development without necessary upgrades to transport and other infrastructure and with no guarantees of freely accessible open space will not benefit the people of Western Sydney.