news, local-news, Tyler Street, Campbelltown, JRPP, Ebony Apartments, Trinity Constructions

THE decision to build 219 units in a tiny Campbelltown cul-de-sac has been described as chaos waiting to happen — but for the residents of Tyler Street, it seems chaos has already descended. The residential street, lined with 1950s-era fibro houses, is near Campbelltown Performing Arts High School and next to Beverley Park Special School. Two of the three six-storey buildings, approved by the state government in 2011, are months from being finished and work on the basement carpark for the third has just begun, leaving residents bracing themselves for months of construction woes. They have made a barrage of complaints to Campbelltown Council and police over the way they say Trinity Constructions handled the building of one of the blocks, saying workers broke curfews, parked cars across their driveways, used foul language and left lunchtime rubbish across the street. John Murphy lives on the street with his wife, who is battling cancer, and said she sometimes has to cut across their neighbour's front yard to drive to medical appointments because their driveway is blocked. "It's just that it's such a narrow street you have to keep telling people to move their cars, to get out of your driveway," Mr Murphy said. Debbie Junge has lived on Tyler Street for 33 years but has vowed to move out before "the street is overrun by hundreds of people". "Everyone has had trouble with their houses moving because of the jackhammering," she said. "You can't get into or out of the street because of all the trucks." Their claims were strongly refuted by the company's construction manager, Chris Raheb, who said the company had "toolbox meetings" with its employees to address issues of swearing, rubbish and parking. He said a fine incurred for breaching the curfew had been issued because of a concrete pour that hadn't finished on time. "If the concrete doesn't cure completely it causes a safety issue." Resident Con Kyriakakis has an inch-thick file of correspondence with Campbelltown Council and the State Government about the units. "From gutter to gutter the street is 7.9 metres wide and there's only one way in and one way out of the street," he said. "Tell me how it'll cope with all of the cars from 219 units? At school time it already takes 20 minutes to drive 500 metres to the Moore-Oxley Bypass lights." Campbelltown Council's acting director of planning and environment, Jim Baldwin, said staff periodically did litter patrols and rangers randomly visit the street. Labor councillor George Brticevic said the developments should never have been approved. ‘‘It’s a continual, back-to-back impact on their lives, it’s an inappropriate site, it overlooks Beverley Park School, which is totally inappropriate, and you can only imagine the traffic bedlam that’s there in the morning,’’ Cr Brticevic said. ‘‘The decisions on these developments were made by the [state government’s joint regional planning panel] and that just shows you how out of touch they are with the local area.’’

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