Group slams bypass

By Ed Merrison
A HILLS environment group has urged government agencies not to bypass what it says are the real transport issues by concentrating on a traffic deviation project for Belgrave.
The Save the Dandenongs League last week labelled La Trobe MP Jason Wood’s push for a Belgrave bypass ‘an expensive short term solution to transport problems in the Hills’.
Group spokesman Louis Delacretaz said what was proposed amounted to a ‘multimillion dollar Band-Aid’ when a comprehensive traffic solution was called for.
“You’ve really got to look at the bigger picture. My concern with the bypass is that 10 years after you do it you still have the same problems,” he said.
Mr Delacretaz pointed out that the two options proposed in Mr Wood’s survey of voters in his electorate – the duplication of Wellington Road and the traffic deviation project – focused exclusively on road transport.
According to the group, Hills residents are faced with several transport problems.
These include limited public transport services for Monbulk, Emerald and other townships beyond Belgrave, poor local planning decisions that forced residents to rely on motor vehicles to access shops and services, and rising petrol prices.
Mr Delacretaz said it was time the government listened to the community rather than scripting its response.
“The bypass treats the symptoms while the underlying causes like inadequate public transport festers away.
“We need long-term answers like boosting public transport to give us realistic alternatives before climate change and rising petrol prices take away our options,” he said.
But Mr Wood hit back at Mr Delacretaz’s suggestion that long-term public transport strategy had been overlooked.
Mr Wood pointed to his presence on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Environment and Heritage, which tabled its report on sustainable cities last September, as evidence of his advocacy for public transport.
The bipartisan report included recommendations to boost Australian Government funding for public transport systems in major cities and to provide specific funding for sustainable public transport infrastructure for suburbs and developments on the outer fringe of cities.
The committee also recommended reviewing current fringe benefits tax concessions for car use, removal of incentives for greater car use and new incentives for using other modes of transport.
“That report is something I’m very proud of but it doesn’t look like (the Save the Dandenongs League) has read it.
“I’d strongly encourage (Mr Delacretaz’s) group to go away and look at the sustainable cities report and make a public comment on it,” he said.
Mr Wood, who has access to Federal strategic regional transport funding for a road project, said the bypass issue was ‘not connected’ to the public transport question.
“We’ve written to 12,000 people to get their views and the majority that responded supported a deviation to sort out traffic congestion in Belgrave once and for all.
“All this traffic is killing Belgrave and I just want to bring it back to life,” he said.