Could the Canning Bridge Vision be Bad for your Health?
Release date:
23 Aug 2011 Independent Member for Alfred Cove Dr Janet Woollard is alarmed at the findings of two new studies that have questioned both the necessity and the benefits of high density living.
Dr Woollard said the findings of the two separate studies threw into doubt the long held belief that high density living was the solution to increased pressures on Australia’s population growth. She said the results were particularly concerning given the proposed redevelopment at Canning Bridge and the local council’s continued support of high density housing within the City of Melville
The University of Western Australia study, commissioned by the Heart Foundation looked at how density living in Australia could be designed in such a way as to minimise harm. The report found that the construction of high density housing has the potential to negatively impact on both a person’s physical and mental health and their longevity.
“The study demonstrates a positive correlation between high density living and issues such as mortality, cancer, respiratory illness and decreased mental wellbeing” Dr Woollard said.
“Of greatest concern is that high density living has been identified as having the potential to negatively impact on a child’s development and has been associated with social isolation and death in the elderly”.
“These are two of the most vulnerable groups in our society” she said “These are the people that we should be protecting”.
The report recommends that high density living should be limited to three or four stories and that there should be easy access to high quality public open space for residents. Dr Woollard said that the Canning Bridge Vision do not adopt either of these recommendations.
Applecross-Mt Pleasant Councillor Nicholas Pazolli, who attended a Planning Institute of Australia Workshop on the University of Western Australia study, agrees that the report provides a significant contribution to the debate on the level of appropriate density for Canning Bridge and the wider City of Melville.
“I am encouraged that the report provides support for my position that the height and number of Canning Bridge high rise developments needs to be managed to ensure the quality of life, wellbeing and health of the high rise and surrounding Applecross / Mt Pleasant residents”
“I will be advocating in the upcoming additional Canning Bridge studies, public consultations and Structural Plan that the Council reduces the height of the Canning Bridge developments and constrains the high density to the central Canning Bridge triangle.”
The second report, the Sustainable Population Strategy was released by the Federal Population Minister, Tony Burke, on 13 May 2011.
The Strategy emphasizes the need for more infrastructure and for measures to help those people that are living on the outer suburban fringes to travel to their work more easily. It rejects the notion that high density living and population growth are necessarily a good thing.
“The report has said that a liveable community should comprise a high quality of life, wellbeing and health” Dr Woollard said “but high density developments do not necessarily address these issues”
“Minister Burke has supported the notion that individual communities need to carefully weigh up all of the relative costs and benefits before committing to a specific strategy to address population growth” she said
“It needs to work at that community level. A ‘one size fits all’ approach simply does not work”
Dr Woollard said that the movement towards high density as part of the Canning Bridge Vision needs to urgently be reconsidered.
“I accept that some amount of urban infill is necessary” Dr Woollard said “but it needs to be appropriately integrated with the existing urban environment and well managed”.
“The University of Western Australia study has shown us that there is the potential for negative impacts from high density housing that can have disastrous effects on our health and quality of life”.
“Designing Density for Australia. Maximising the Health Benefits and Minimising Harm” Billie Giles-Corti, Kate Ryan and Sarah Foster on behalf of the Heart Foundation
“Sustainable Australia- Sustainable Communities” Department of Sustainability, Environment Water, Population and Communities
