By Goya Dmytryshchak
Residents on the eastern side of Hansen Street in Altona North have lost their fight to become part of Newport.
Hobsons Bay council has rejected a petition signed by 64 people which called for the boundary between Altona North and Newport to be restored to the middle of Hansen Street as it was prior to 1999.
Lead petitioner Carla Bridge said the council had failed to explain why the houses on the eastern side of Hansen Street were transferred from Newport to Altona North in 1999.
“They haven’t addressed at all why the boundary was changed in the first place,” she said.
“They’ve never told us what the exceptional circumstance was for them to tweak it in such a bizarre way back in 1999.
“They’ve also said they consulted with the community but they haven’t given any examples of how they consulted … there are many elderly residents in the street who have no memory of being consulted and some of them weren’t even aware that the changes had taken place.”
The petition had called for Newport’s western boundary to be brought back to the middle of Hansen Street bringing it into line with Newport’s historical location, Australian Bureau of Statistics maps, Hobsons Bay’s waste collection routes, and Hobsons Bay’s new residential zones and neighbourhood character precincts.
Residents also raised issues about a reduction in house value, increase in insurance premiums for homes and cars, problems with mail delivery and GPS, and residents having mixed identification and property documents.
An officer’s report presented to last week’s Hobsons Bay council meeting stated there were a number of changes to boundaries “driven by the state government” following the amalgamation of the former cities of Altona and Williamstown into Hobsons Bay in 1994.
“Some suburb boundaries changed, including the eastern boundary for Altona, which previously followed New Street, Hansen Street and Blenheim Road.
“The ABS reviewed their boundaries in 1995 to align most of them with the new local government boundaries. Some of these boundaries, including Newport and Altona North are not in alignment through the centre of the road in Hobsons Bay.”
The officer’s report stated that in 1997 consultation was undertaken with the community.
