Analysis of the Eddington Report Submissions

Kate Wilson, from The University of Melbourne, has conducted a detailed analysis of all 2149 submissions that were forwarded to the Department of Transport, in response to the East-West Link Need's Assessment, often called the 'Eddington Report'.

Take a look at it here (pdf). Below are a few key quotes.

4.9 Specific Issues
According to Eddington: “The EWLNA Study Team has also assessed the environmental impacts of all options considered by the study, as well as giving close attention to issues of community and neighbourhood amenity.”47 Kensington in particular feels like this has not been the case as JJ Holland Park is a proposed construction site for the east-west tunnel. The destruction of JJ Holland Park was the single biggest specific issue from the submission process. Submissions were received from children and their parents, sporting clubs using the park and community organisations. The Kensington Association is concerned with specific impacts the tunnel would have on JJ Holland Park and “strongly opposes to the use of JJ Holland Park as a staging point for any construction, or as an exit for the road tunnel proposed in Recommendation 4.”48 Many different groups and individuals use the park for passive and structured relaxation and leisure activities and if the use of the park goes ahead it will result in a backlash for the Brumby Government. Similarly, Royal Park in Parkville also mobilised mass community support for the park and was a big issue for a number of submissions....

And from the conclusion...

The obvious conclusion to be drawn from the submissions is that there is widespread opposition to the tunnel. Almost 78 percent of submissions were opposed to the tunnel compared with almost 8 percent who were in favour of it. Individual submissions were overwhelmingly against the tunnel, with 93 percent of them opposing it. Opposition for the tunnel was based primarily on the need for public transport instead of more roads and the impact of the tunnel on climate change. Specific issues were the next biggest contender, in particular the use of JJ Holland Park in Kensington as a staging point for construction of the tunnel was met with widespread opposition.