It’s official: Hoppers Lane is out, and Wests Road is in as the new location for the state government’s planned $288 million youth jail.
But the state government’s backflip has been met with a mixed reaction.
Following a groundswell of community opposition, including a rally that attracted more than 8000 protesters in the heart of Werribee, Werribee MP Tim Pallas and Youth Affairs Minister Jenny Mikakos last week announced the youth jail would be built on a 67-hectare site owned by Melbourne Water and set back about 700 metres from Wests Road in Werribee.
The new site is close to the Werribee tip and more than five kilometres away from the edge of all future and current residential estates, including the existing Westleigh Gardens and Riverwalk estates.
The Wests Road site was not one of the original locations considered for the youth prison and was only looked at upon the recommendation of Wyndham council.
Ms Mikakos said the project would still be delivered within the existing timelines and budget.
Mr Pallas said the site would provide “considerable economic opportunity” for Wyndham.
“I think that the process of engagement we’ve had has led to a much better outcome, one that the community can have some satisfaction in,” he said.
The council will work with the government to ensure that, once built, the youth detention centre cannot be accessed from Wyndham’s residential streets.
Instead, the council wants an access road to be built down from the Little River diamond interchange off the Princes Freeway.
Similarly, any signage pointing to the youth jail will be located along the freeway.
Wyndham mayor Henry Barlow said it was a great result for the community.
“We said at the very beginning we were not against a facility like this, we just didn’t agree that [Hoppers Lane] was the site for it,” he said.
“It’s only taken about four weeks to come up with an alternative site … to be able to come up with this solution in such a short period of time goes to the fact that we’re willing, as a community, to work very hard, and that the government was willing to listen.”
Speak Out – Wyndham’s Voice president Lisa Heinrichs and Werribee South Ratepayers Association president Joe Garra said they were thrilled with the result.
Ms Heinrichs dedicated the win to the Wyndham community and people power.
“We were always determined that we were going to win this,” she said. “We didn’t expect to win so soon, but we were always hopeful that the government would see the light and realise that they picked the wrong location.
“[This shows] what can be done when people come together.”
Mr Garra added: “I think the government were surprised by the community reaction [to the Hoppers Lane site] – I don’t think they expected that many people to mobilise so quickly … I’m really proud of the community.”
The Speak Out group, which was planning to protest about the Hoppers Lane site during the weekend’s Weerama parade, instead used the parade as a celebration of the win.
But while many spent last week rejoicing, many took to the Wyndham Star Weekly Facebook page questioning if the community had scored a win when the youth prison was still going to be built within Wyndham.
Rosa asked: “Why still in Werribee? Not good enough.”
“Still far too close to housing, and new estates,” said Nic, while Vee wondered: “How is this a win?”
Werribee resident Linda Moloney said Werribee residents had been duped.
“What better way to get a community on board than to throw up a bogus site, pretend to listen to community and then, bingo, change the site?”
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy called the backflip a “panicked decision from a government lurching from crisis to crisis”.
“The location at Werribee South was wrong from the start,” he said.
“I question the current location again – this facility should be located next to an existing adult prison.
“It should be part of a jail precinct.”
But Wyndham chief executive Kelly Grigsby said that the government refused to build the new youth detention centre next to an existing adult prison.
She said the government rejected as too small, land abutting the existing Barwon and Ravenhall prisons.
