Shadow Minister for Regional Transport and Roads, Jenny Aitchison and Member for Gosford Liesl Tesch have joined a local community rally calling on the NSW Liberal Government to honour their original commitment to make the Point Clare Station upgrade accessible.

In 2020, the NSW Government announced an accessibility upgrade to Point Clare Station. The Government promised to build new ramps along with elevators in an inclusion for all design shared and supported by the local community.

The Government then broke their promise recently when they changed the design halfway through the current build.

Currently, the station’s underpass is inaccessible with stairs now greeting cyclists, scooter users and mobility-impaired people where a step-free walkway used to be.

After the current plans are finished a person with a pram, mobility scooter or wheelchair would need to use two lifts to get from one side of the station to the other. There would also be no option for those people if either of these two lifts are out of order.

“The Minister for Regional Transport and Roads, the Hon Sam Farraway went out to local media and said we were creating a scare campaign. Imagine that! a scare campaign around accessibility ramps”

"The Minister recently stated that ramps would be installed on both sides of the station. Clearly, he needs to come up from Sydney to see that isn’t the case and hear our concerns about this so-called ‘accessibility upgrade’ which isn’t accessible”

The community rally comes after hundreds of residents have signed Ms Tesch’s petition calling on Sam Farraway, NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads to listen to our community and deliver ramp options on both sides, as originally proposed, and agreed to by the community.

Shadow Minister for Regional Transports and Roads, Jenny Aitchison said the government has failed to implement the plan they developed in consultation with the community.

“They haven’t provided a viable alternative for people during construction,” she said.

I am truly shocked that people have been seen riding motor scooters on one of the busiest roads on the central coast while this Government appears to be making up plans for the project as they go along. 

The community has told me they have a clear understanding that there was to be a ramp option. They say that’s what the Government promised them, and now we see a network of steps and tunnels, with no ramps in sight.