GlenHuntly & Thereabouts

This article in the Leader newspaper had me hopping mad trying to find the renewed Humanist struggling within me in charity of thought!!

Sir Rod Eddington’s plan could bring big changes for Caulfield station.

LOCAL reaction to Sir Rod Eddington’s $18 billion plans to improve Melbourne’s public transport is mixed.

Sir Rod’s recommendations, aimed at improving east-west transport connections across Melbourne, included a proposal for a 17km, $8.5 billion railway line linking Caulfield to Footscray via an underground tunnel.

But Glen Eira Mayor Steven Tang said the council had no particular requests for east-west transport links.

Cr Tang said other transport projects needed to be completed to help reduce traffic snarls and commuter crushes across the municipality.

“There is little indication that (the plan) will reduce congestion in Glen Eira, nor increase residents’ public transport patronage,” he said.

“Local residents are crying out for grade separation, to remove some of the level crossings contributing to congestion in Glen Eira.

“We have been steadily increasing our investment in infrastructure; it would be good if the State and Federal governments did the same.”

Glen Eira Community Associations (GECA) president Don Dunstan welcomed the possibility of a rail tunnel linking Melbourne’s west with Caulfield.

“The tunnel would cement Glen Eira’s position as a major learning and recreational hub in the centre of the Melbourne metropolitan area,” Mr Dunstan said.

“Last year we submitted a master plan to the State Government for a wonderful new era of recreational public use of the crown lands near Caulfield station.

“A tunnel connecting Melbourne University with Monash here in Glen Eira complements that GECA vision perfectly.”

Mary’s Commentary:

Mayor Tang sounds remarkably laid back and unexcited about what is a mind blowing field of possibilities for Glen Eira residents.

Of course we support the tunnel coming out at Caulfield but the Councillors elected to act and advocate on our behalf have to show a degree of interest and enthusiasm for what is proposed in our neck of the woods if the project is to be a participatory one with State Government!

Of course residents would expect State Government to automatically obliterate the level crossings to allow for the free flowing traffic to move quickly onto their chosen destinations.  The drivers won’t want to be sitting at century old infrastructure and we won’t want to be choking in their pollution from stalled vehicles at gates!   That is the bonus we’d expect because nothing short of that proposed tunnel will move the Council into action on our behalf.  With the increased traffic comes additional opening times of the wretched gates for trains to pass through vehicle and pedestrian traffic paths.   Council needs to take a position of whether separation should translate into beneath the road or over it, but separate it must!

Will the Caulfield Race Course, as we know it today, be swallowed up in providing space for access and the needs of the tunnel spillage with traffic going off in six directions…North Road, Monash Tollway, Princes Highway, Burke Road or cutting back to the Nepean Highway…will there be acquiring of houses, businesses, will the existing infrastructure be changed with new flyover freeways or tollways being built.

It is about cars, trucks, buses and trains for goodness sake.   It is about thousands and thousands of additional transport means spilling onto our limited “over congested” roads with its thousand traffic lights and parking restrictions already a problem!.

Do Governments at levels, State and Local, halt density housing planning and further development by the Melbourne Racing Club until the proposal tunnel alternatives and possibilities have been fully aired?

Mayor Tang states they have been steadily increasing investment in infrastructure but fails to mention that it had to increase because Council’s record remained static for years and years.  In the past couple of years Council is merely catching up with ignored pressures for years on footpaths, roads and drainage.

Prior to a footpath upgrade last year I could not remember it ever being undertaken in the past 30 years and yet rates have been collected continually quoting the same story of infrastructure improvements needed throughout all that time.

Mind you we do have funds for the Taj Mahal of swimming pools,  when all that was asked for by the residents themselves was a $5 mil upgrade of the existing pool facility!   Then we have the million dollar baby plus of conference centres to be built smack in the middle of the major Caulfield Park…..Yes I suppose it helps if we consider value for dollar in what the infrastructure increasing investments by Glen Eira Council is actually returning to the nuts and bolts residents, the mums and dads of society without the handicap of limited sporting bodies whose every whim appears to be Council’s preferred option for limited open space.  It is green, kill it with concrete!

The Council sounds tired and without any enthusiasm for embracing new horizons…..perhaps along with the zoning changes, the State Government could look at taking charge of Council Planning altogether, leaving it a shell to take care of waste management..