By Laura Michell
Hume council will lobby for funding to redevelop Broadmeadows’ “dive” of a train station ahead of the November state election.
The redevelopment of the station is one of the council’s advocacy priorities as part of its Build a Better Hume Campaign.
The redevelopment of Broadmeadows station has been a contentious issue, with funding allocated to the project by the Brumby government in 2010. However, that funding was redirected in 2013 following a change of government. Hume council has been calling for the money to be reinstated ever since.
The 2018-19 state budget allocated $800,000 to the preparation of a business case for the station. In June 2019, council slammed Department of Transport’s redevelopment proposal as the “under-development of the century”. The department;s proposed a “base case” of improvements to the station.
Speaking at council’s July 11 meeting, councillor Joseph Haweil said he was outraged at the government’s lack of commitment to redevelop the station.
It’s a joke,” he said.
“Not a dollar has been committed to significant redevelopment of the site.
“It’s disgusting. It’s dangerous. It’s a dive.”
Cr Karen Sherry said the station suffered from “ageing infrastructure and is difficult to use and uninviting.”
“It doesn’t meet current design standards for transport interchanges and negatively impacts economic and social opportunities and community pride and safety,” she said.
“So many people have complained to us over many years. It’s not just this term of council, this has been going on for a long time.
“In 2020 and 2021, Broadmeadows ranked 185th of the 223 stations in the publicly available Public Transport Victoria data set and it gets 1250 customers per day during the week. That’s more than Glenroy and Reservoir.
“They’ve had major upgrades, Glenroy and Reservoir are looking pretty good so we want better than that.”
The council is also calling for investment in social housing at Broadmeadows’ Banksia Gardens housing estate, duplication of Sunbury Road between Bulla-Diggers Rest Road and Melbourne Airport, duplication of Mickleham Road between Dellamore Boulevard and Craigieburn Road, improvements to Donnybrook Road, and the duplication of Somerton Road between Roxburgh Park Drive and Mickleham Road.
