Tara Murray
The Broadmeadows Progress Association is calling on the new Hume council to reopen the Pascoe Vale Road loop in Broadmeadows.
The loop, which connected Pascoe Vale Road with Camp Road, was officially closed last week with the road to be removed as part of the redevelopment of Hume Central.
The site will be re-purposed as a new multi-level carpark to help ease parking problems in Broadmeadows.
Drivers will now have to use an alternative route via Dimboola Road and Pearcedale Parade.
The council signed a memorandum of understanding with VicRoads last year to purchase the loop site for the carpark.
Information on Hume council’s website said traffic modelling has shown that the removal of the loop road will result in minimal impact on motorists, with the proposed alternative route approximately 750 metres longer but has slip lanes at each turn.
The council trialled the closure of the existing loop road and said there were no complaints following the trial.
The Progress Association has put out a flyer calling for the council to “wake up”, saying the road had been working well for a number of years and should remain.
“In the interest of the community and good traffic management, we call on the newly elected Hume councillors to reverse this decision,” the flyer said.
Progress association’s Sonja Rutherford said the closure of the road would affect a lot of people and that many people had told them they weren’t aware that it would be closing.
She said they would have liked to have had a trial which involved the road shut for a two to three months first to see what impact it would have.
Mrs Rutherford said a new car park would have been better built across the road at the railway station.
