The Mayor is furious at the amount of time it is taking to select a site for the $1.3 billion hospital and the release of the results of drilling investigations carried out at the sports complex almost two months ago.
He said the council had been trying to get answers for more than a month, but had “been stonewalled at every attempt”.
“I have it on good authority that NSW Health has found the site to contain contaminants and must rule it out immediately,” he said.
He said when he visited the testing site, “it was clear they were pulling up a thick black sludge”.
“But we won’t know what’s being pulled up because they won’t tell us,” he said.
“What have they got to hide?
“This whole drilling exercise is as murky as what’s in the soil. And their testing regime is even murkier.
“No wonder they haven’t been able to arrive at a hospital site yet.
“Our residents deserve much better than this and shouldn’t be taken for granted.”
The council’s preferred option remains in the Bankstown CBD, which its says “can meet a new hospital’s transport and infrastructure requirements”.
With NSW Health committed to starting work on the hospital before March 2023, a spokesperson said that while in-ground investigations at the Sports Complex had been completed and were being assessed as part of the due diligence, the site selection process was still underway and investigations were taking place at a number of locations to determine their feasibility.
“The community will be kept informed as the project progresses and once a site has been selected,” he said.
Hospital site option plan ‘murky’
THE Bankstown Sporting Complex must be ruled out immediately as a possible site for the new Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, after it was found to contain contaminants, says Canterbury Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour.
