The Friends of the GreenWay group has urged the inner west community, especially families with school-aged children, along to the May 31 NSW Parliament GreenWay debate. 

The 4.30pm debate kick-off time means that parents would be able to bring their children after school (most schools finish around 3pm). However, as the debate will last no longer than 16 minutes, attendees are strongly urged to arrive by at least 4.15pm.

Read our media release and flyer for more details about the debate. It would be helpful if you are going to come along to register with Jennifer Kent (details in the flyer) to help us plan for the day.

The GreenWay will be a major off-road route for local kids to get to school and a place where they can get fit while safely exploring the fascinating local environment. For more details, read our

In a letter to Ashfield mayor Lyall Kennedy on April 11,available here, Strathfield Liberal MP Charles Casuscelli continues to run the party line about the GreenWay. The GreenWay runs through the electorate of Strathfield in the North Summer Hill area and many people signed letters to Mr Casuscelli at the Friends’ Ashfield Carnival of Cultures stall in March.  We’ll be continuing to seek Mr Casuscelli’s support for the GreenWay initiative.

We’ve filed a submission to the Active Transport Strategy being developed by the GreenWay Sustainability Project. The GreenWay Sustainability Project is a NSW Government-funded team working at Ashfield Council to further the GreenWay vision (more information at www.greenway.org.au).

Our submission looks at some practical improvements which could be undertaken to meet the GreenWay vision, even if the NSW Government continues to refuse to fund the 5km cycling, walking and environmental corridor alongside the light rail line. This includes traffic safety and other improvements in an ’out of corridor’ GreenWay.  Read the submission here.

About 85 riders took part in the ‘New Volunteers Day’ ride between Sydney Harbour and the Cooks River on Sunday – signalling that the GreenWay campaign is going from strength to strength.

 “We are ecstatic about the turnout which underlines the strong community support for this initiative,” said Liz Locksley, convenor of the Friends of the GreenWay. “We’re very happy that we’ve gained some extra volunteers to take our campaign to the next step.”

 Nick Chapman, long-standing GreenWay advocate and current Ashfield citizen of year (pictured) told the riders about the rich history and key environmental features of the route. Read more in our media release

Local MPs and Mayors present our petition. Photo courtesy of greenway.org.au

On Wednesday 15^th February 2012 Friends of the GreenWay joined local Mayors and MPs representing the whole of the GreenWay catchment to present our petition to Save The GreenWay to the NSW Parliament. Watch the event video here.

Supporters of the GreenWay came from all across Sydney, representing many communities and voluntary groups – another demonstration of the way the GreenWay is already connecting people across Sydney.

Thank you to everyone who signed the petition, and a special thanks to those volunteers who went to dozens of local events over the past months collecting signatures.  The GreenWay is a true grassroots project!

Along with the many other supporters of the GreenWay were:

• Carmel Tebbutt, MP for Marrickville
• Jamie Parker, MP for Balmain
• Linda Burney, MP for Canterbury
• Charles Casuscelli, MP for Strathfield
• Rochelle Porteous, Mayor of Leichhardt
• Lyall Kennedy, Mayor of Ashfield
• Morris Hanna, Mayor of Marrickville
• Brian Robson, Mayor of Canterbury

Our local MPs will now present the petition to Transport Minister Gladys  Berejiklian, and the petition will be debated by Parliament on 31 May 2012.

In a major step forward for our campaign, the GreenWay petition will be formally presented to local MPs at NSW Parliament House on Wednesday 15th February at 11am. Local Liberal, ALP and Green MPs have either been invited or will attend this presentation in what is truly a bi-partisan event.

Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, has also been invited, with of course anyone who supports the GreenWay also welcome to attend.  Now that more than 10,000 signatures have been collected on the petition, we are entitled to have the axing of the GreenWay debated at Parliament at a future date and we will keep you up to date about this.

Supporters of the GreenWay come from all across Sydney. The GreenWay connects people, places and communities regionally as well as locally. Thank you to everyone for supporting the GreenWay. The GreenWay started as is a grassroots project and continues be so!

If you want to come along, please email fotgmedia@gmail.com or confirm your attendance at our MeetUp page so we can plan for numbers. Read more important details about the event in this flyer.

 PLEASE NOTE: ARTcycle Inc is affiliated with BicycleNSW. This is an organised Bicycle User Group event, conditions apply. No helmet no ride. Bikes must be in good working order and riders will follow the direction of ride leaders and obey road rules at all times. Please read the disclaimer for participating here. The Friends of the GreenWay accepts no liability for any incidents on the ride. We urge all riders to have their own personal accident and liability insurance, such as through the scheme organised by BicycleNSW http://www.bicyclensw.org.au/content/membership