Jennifer Pittorino
Residents from Hobsons Bay have compiled a budget submission, asking council to consider a Precinct 15 Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) Plan for Altona North when forming its budget.
Better West is a community group which advocates for public health, protection of the environment, and the cultural and social amenity of western suburbs. It has $200,000 for the plan.
The breakdown of the plan allocates $70,000 for a local area traffic management study, $100,000 for co-operative design workshops and $30,000 for a car parking plan.
Spokesperson Rowena Joske said the traffic management plan for the Precinct 15 development was agreed to in 2018 by Hobsons Bay council.
“This is not something Better West has invented, the plan was agreed to through the planning process for the Precinct 15 development.”
Ms Joske said a planning panel review was held and considered recommendations from council and community members.
“From this panel recommendations were made to the planning minister, this was one of them.
“A lot of issues and problems were identified, and recommendations were made to council on how they should work with the community to come up with solutions for these problems.
“It was acknowledged that the traffic from the development was going to have a big impact on the surrounding areas.”
This will be the third time Better West has submitted this proposal to council in the budget submissions.
Ms Joske said it should have been done “a while ago.”
“[Council has] acknowledged it but for whatever reason they haven’t agreed to it,” she said.
“We think unfortunately because it hasn’t been done there hasn’t been good guidance around traffic in the area.
“So we think there are some really exciting opportunities that council can pick up and work with the community on to come up with some fun solutions for their neighbourhood.”
Ms Joske said the Better West group hopes to have conversations with councillors ahead of their budget considerations at the end of June.
Hobsons Bay council was contacted for comment.
