RE. METROPOLITAN VISION HITS BUMPS IN THE ROAD (Weekly, online)
Nothing can grow forever, and the problem with Plan Melbourne is accommodating growth in housing, traffic, mobility and infrastructure.
How can anything be properly designed when it’s still growing? It means making sacrifices on quality planning to accommodate the costs of growth. The east-west link is not primarily for commuters as most people want more public transport.
There is already the Western Ring Road and the West Gate Bridge. Melbourne is assumed to become a big transport hub, based at Hastings.
Business supply chains want direct access across Melbourne, and this is the main business plan for its construction. There are too many vested interests. Plan Melbourne should be scrapped and replaced by a plan to enhance our city, not simply accommodate the cashed-up businesses that want perpetual growth.
NIMBY VIA ONLINE
RE. SUNBURY SECESSION: SPLIT MUST BE QUICK, SAYS HUME COUNCILLOR (Weekly, online)
Diggers Rest should have been included [as part of a Sunbury shire] 30 years ago.
DEEJAY VIA ONLINE
COUNCIL SHARES BLAME
Recently a planning proposal submitted to the Whittlesea council’s planning department included the possibility of medium-density housing being built at the rear of Bellevue estate, which has access only to Plenty Road.
Residents raised a petition with more than 270 signatures to highlight concerns about the impact that this type of development would have on an already over-congested Plenty Road. Concerns were tabled to the council, which responded “that an increase of traffic is not a relevant town planning consideration”.
The state government must invest more in roads and rail. But the council is complicit in the situation we find ourselves in today. It has approved too many townhouses, apartments and high-density developments in residential areas all over the municipality.
JAMES SOMERVILLE SOUTH MORANG
