The human toll on the citizens of Bexley from toll-dodgers and rat-runners is laid bare in the release of the NSW Upper House report into Road Tolling Regimes.
The long-awaited report has just been tabled in Parliament and the impact of the M5 and M8 tolls and the increased traffic through the Bexley Town centre features prominently.
A whole section of the report is devoted to the impacts on Bexley of M5 Toll avoidance.
It describes lost business, health issues from ceaseless noise, parents forced to play "roulette" with heavy traffic as they pick up their children from school.
Angelo Elliot, proprietor of the Forest Inn Hotel for 44 years said the implementation of new tolls and clearway rules have 'strangled' the Bexley Town Centre.
"There's no parking. There are no people. There are no shoppers and the shops are all poor," Mr Elliot said.
Ahmad Sleitini, proprietor of Scots Pharmacy on Forest Road for 12 years said he has lost many family customers who, as parents, feel very unsafe with 400-tonne trucks passing by their children."
"We are actually doing a quarter (of family business) of what we had to do two to three years ago," he said. "Parents do not want to come to our local area. Eldery could not come and see us. We could never hold a conversation in the pharmacy anymore. The noise is just so loud.
"What has actually happened has poisoned the local businesses and it's just very unhealthy and very unsafe."
Ms Jamina Kovacevic, resident and owner of a retail tenancy with a shop top apartment said both tenants are giving up the lease because of the impact of noise pollution and traffic that shakes the building at all hours.
She applied to Transport for NSW for noise abatement measures last Christmas and is still waiting to be assessed.
Osman Karolia, principal of Arkana College on Stoney Creek Road described the impact of increased traffic on the school.
"We now have parents almost playing a game of roulette as they try and get access outside the school due to the heavy vehicles coming on. You always get the fear that there is an ancient - a significant accident - waiting to happen," Mr Karolia said.
Bexley resident Les Crompton took up the cause of airport workers and owner drivers who divert through Bexley to avoid the tolls.
"A lot of owner-drivers come through Bexley with their trucks because they can't pay $25 to go through to Port Botany, and the residents can't afford to pay $7.31 to drive through to go to work. That is what we have got back on our roads, and that is a problem that our current Government has created," he said.
The report calls on the NSW Government to immediately release the traffic network performance review into the M8 and M5 toll roads, specifically about the issues regarding rat running.
The report was supported to be released a year ago but the State Government has given no indication when it will be released.
NSW drivers now undertake more than one-million toll trips a day, raising more than $2 billion in total revenue, the report found.
The NSW Government has failed to provide information to this inquiry about the total toll burden that drivers will be forced to pay under the existing toll contracts deposit estimates that it is more than $100 billion in today's dollars.
The decision by NSW Treasury to withhold from public release contact details and traffic relating to WestConnex until 2060, and possibly beyond, is an abuse of executive power, the report has found.
"Bexley Chamber of Commerce president, Jeff Tullock thanked the Inquiry members for holding their final hearing in Bexley to better understand the neighbourhood amenity and safety impacts caused by toll avoider.
"The M8 opened in June 2020 and report's Recommendation 3 calls for the NSW Government to immediately release the traffic network performance review for the M8 and M5 toll roads which was a requirement of the conditions of approval one year after opening.
"The Conditions of Approval for the New M5 (now called the M8), contains the requirement for a network performance review plan one year after opening.
"The conditions requre the review plan to include: an updated description and proposed timing of potential mitigation measures, including measures to remove or limit any adverse impacts on any road user groups impacted by the State Significant Infrastructure.
"I for one will be very interested in seeing what mitigation measures are proposed to return Bexley Town Centre traffic to pre June 2020 levels."
