The new development at the Werribee Employment Precinct and Point Cook West announced by the Baillieu Government on Tuesday risks causing further traffic frustration if plans are not made well in advance to ensure that the transport infrastructure is developed along with the business and residential areas.

The announcement comes as the Baillieu Government has been in office for two years, bringing them to the halfway point of their first term before they heeded the calls from the community and local MPs to support the project, which was originally announced as part of the policy program the previous Labor Government took to the 2010 election.

There not been enough detail about exactly how long it will take to build the infrastructure, when they will and what the infrastructure will be, and it does not seem to have occurred to the Government that a new business district and new suburb would need public transport beyond the already stretched services of our existing suburbs.

It is not even clear whether the land sale revenue will even be spent in this community. Mr Guy told the Age that ”the $700 million plus that will be made from land sales on this site, all of it will be delivered back to the western suburbs.” (‘Baillieu’s Western CBD will
fail without rail’, The Age, 21 November 2012).

Planning Minister Matthew Guy said that a full diamond interchange would be built at Sneydes Road, but in fact all his Government has committed is $500,000 to planning and scoping for what will be only a half-diamond intersection, with exits facing the city, not the west. 

This will only repeat the problems of the Duncans Road interchange, which needs to be expanded to a full diamond interchange

Mr Guy needs to make it clear on how long it will be until the second half of the interchange will be built.  

Appropriate transport linkages need to be planned for and in the pipeline before the new suburb is developed, not afterwards.

We cannot create a transport ghetto in the West. This Government may believe that it is appropriate that, as Government MP Philip Davis said in Parliament, “The inevitable fact is that people choose to build in an area knowing that all the services they require are not going to be there the day they move in, but in time those services will develop.”

 Questions for Matthew Guy

Why is there only going to be half a diamond  interchange?

1. When will the full diamond interchange be built?
2. Why, as reported in the Age, did you say that the funds would be allocated to the  hole of the Western suburbs, not specifically to the people of Wyndham, the fastest growing LGA in the State?
3. Why have you not identified governance structures for the development or specified the role of the local community?
4. Why have you not established performance indicators for the project in terms of job creation?
5. What will happen if the job creation does not reach the levels anticipated under the plan? Will the amount of housing development remain the same if the jobs targets are not met?
6. Will you give assurances that the roads and public transport connections will be dealt with, considering that this with this development the community will be adding the equivalent of the population of Echuca?
7. How will resulting the pressure on wider transport network, not just internal roads for the new suburb, be dealt with?
8.  Do you now acknowledge that this growth in the West affirms that the second river crossing needs to be the highest priority transport infrastructure project for the Victorian Government, and needs to be built before a link from the Eastern Fwy to the Tullamarine?
9. Can you confirm that Sneydes Road will be completed before new residents move in?
10. Do you acknowledge that Derrimut Railway Station needs to be developed ahead of the anticipated population increase, rather than waiting until after the growth has happened?
11. What are the plans to relieve the traffic congestion at the Hoppers Lane, and expand the capacity at the intersection?
12. Will you guarantee that proceeds from the Gateway sight (Hoppers Lane) will go to upgrades to the Princes Hwy-Old Geelong Road intersection?
13. What are the plans to ensure that congestion is avoided between Heaths Road and Princes Highway?
14. Does the Government have plans for public reporting on performance of the project’s delivery on jobs and infrastructure?
15. What are the next highest priority projects and do you nclude signals at the Sneydes Rd-Princes Hwy interchange and at the Hoppers Lane intersection near the railway line?