CRIES for cash to fix Wyndham’s choked roads have fallen on deaf ears, with the state government failing to allocate a single dollar to the region’s roads in yesterday’s budget.
Roads Minister Terry Mulder announced $548million in funding “to ease road congestion in Melbourne’s suburbs”. All the projects were in Melbourne’s east.
Spruiking the government’s investment in Casey, covering Narre Warren and Berwick, Mr Mulder said the funding would better connect communities in “one of the most rapidly developing areas in Melbourne”.
But Melbourne’s fastest-growing area, Wyndham, has been snubbed.
Calls for the duplication of Point Cook Road, traffic lights at the intersection of Old Geelong and Forsyth roads in Hoppers Crossing, a diamond interchange at Duncans Road in Werribee South, and upgrades to the municipality’s worst traffic trouble spots weren’t enough to prompt the government to act.
Tarneit MP Tim Pallas said it was clear the government felt the country’s fastest-growing municipality did not warrant investment
in roads.
“Wyndham is growing much faster than Casey but not one new dollar has been spent on roads in the area. I’m not against Casey getting the funding, but it is about making sure all growth areas get a fair share.”
The government also failed to allocated funding for the next stage of the upgrade to Werribee Mercy Hospital, and the Werribee Employment Precinct.
Werribee Open Range Zoo received an extra $638,000 for bridge and bus stop works.
With plans to develop 2500 homes in Point Cook’s west closer to getting the green light, no money was earmarked for road infrastructure to cater for the area’s growth.
Mr Pallas said there was an $80million infrastructure deficit in Point Cook’s west, and the government had said nothing about where the money would come from.
Committee for Wyndham chief executive Nik Tsardakis said the budget was a “complete disappointment” for people in the west.
“We haven’t got anywhere near our share of the tax base. We’ve been short-changed for a long period of time here, and this is another year that the same has happened.”
