By Esther Lauaki
Williams Landing residents are fighting to stop the Palmers Road upgrade which they believe will “destroy lives”.
Palmers Road is one of Wyndham’s busiest roads, with about 20,000 cars and trucks travelling along it daily, and is under construction as part of the Western Roads Upgrade. Works to widen the road, which runs between Princes and Western freeways, to include three lanes in each direction, began this year.
Wade Green attended a community meeting this month, held by Major Road Projects Victoria with residents who live in the project’s “impact zone” and said people were misinformed about the scale of the development.
“Residents from non-English speaking backgrounds are shocked … and felt discriminated that the government assumed their communal plan took into consideration their situation,” Mr Green wrote in a letter to the project managers on behalf of a group of fellow residents.
“We strongly request all teams involved not to commence the project until the pending questions … and a clear view is provided.”
Mr Green’s main concern was the widened road would produce excessive noise and pollution and eliminate open green spaces.
“We are a diverse community – with young children, shift workers, home-based businesses, new Australians and retirees who have all built lives inside a relatively quiet and pollution free greenfield development, the Cedar Woods Williams Landing Estate,” he said.
“We paid extra to have the amenity of open spaces and the beauty of air cleansing trees.
“Traffic noise and pollution destroys lives.”
Project director Frank De Santis said Major Road Projects Victoria would continue to work closely with residents.
“We’ve delivered tens of thousands of information sheets to residents, hundreds of people have attended our community information sessions and thousands more had their say via online consultation,” Mr De Santis said.
He said green space would be provided through the upgrade.
