Wyndham is one of Australia’s fastest growing urban areas, so we’re a prime location for increased residential activity, right? Well, that’s what Planning Minister Matthew Guy thinks.
The announcement of the Werribee east master plan last week seemed to come out of the blue. Although the government press releases carefully tag this project as an ’employment precinct’, the devil is in the detail.
While a new suburb providing 50,000 jobs and a road interchange at Sneydes Road is welcome news, Werribee east will also provide 7000 homes. No mention is made of new rail infrastructure and little about public transport improvements. Add to all this approval of the Point Cook West precinct structure plan which allows for a further 2000 homes.
But the Sneydes Road interchange will help our already horrendous traffic woes won’t it? Sure, but it’s just another entry/exit onto a freeway already bursting at the seams.
According to the government, the interchange will only be built once land sales have commenced to help fund it, meaning things will probably get worse before they get better.
Mr Guy said the interchange “has the potential to reduce pressure on Palmers, Forsyth and Point Cook roads”. Has the potential?
We don’t need vague possibilities Mr Guy.
We need dollars and common sense, duplication of key roads and a vastly improved public transport system, starting with our bus routes. You can put all the jobs you like on our ‘doorsteps’, but we still have to get to work, get our children to school and access our shopping centres. At this stage it appears the ‘increased residential activity’ flagged as part of the master plan will only result in more cars and more congestion on already gridlocked roads.
Emma Sutcliffe is a freelance writer on Facebook at “Little River Emma”
