by Sahar Foladi
Greater Dandenong Council has finally resolved long-running safety concerns over a road upgrade outside a Sikh temple in Keysborough.
The council’s Perry Road construction and widening project plan had been set to effectively remove a safe right-turn slip lane entry for Gurudwara Sri Guru Granth Sahib temple goers, something which they currently have.
While the temple representatives flagged this with council officers after they found out about the road upgrades in August 2023, many meetings and discussions were held to find a solution.
Councillor Rhonda Garad together with Mordialloc MP Tim Richardson have liaised on support of the temple.
Councillor Garad although “happy” about the “reasonable outcome” says she was “gobsmacked by the whole journey.”
“Whether we call it a win or it’s just not a loss because this is what we wanted a year ago, we were told they had to move their entrance and pay for the turning lane. They were looking at a huge amount of money of more than $120,000,” Cr Garad said.
Since the dispute began, an administrative restructure by Greater Dandenong chief executive officer Jacqui Weatherill replaced three of the council’s four executive directors.
Councillor Garad says without the council officers’ “change of mindset” they may not have reached the desired outcome.
“The new officers have a new attitude of wanting to help, sort it out and wanting the best outcome for everybody.
“We would be still in a difficult place because there’s no way a volunteer organisation can come up with enormous amount of money required immediately to fix something they already had and was taken away from them.”
In a statement, Greater Dandenong stated it “recognises the road safety concerns of the Sikh Temple users and has modified the Perry Rd design to retain the existing sealed widened shoulder that has been used as an entry point”.
“Given this work will retain an existing condition, these works have been included in Council’s Project Budget.
“If the Sikh Temple wishes to upgrade the site in future this will be at their own cost.”
The project rebuilds a 850-metre section of Perry Road between Greens Road and Pacific Drive with its stated objective to increase safety and reduce congestion.
The temple and school is surrounded by industrial sites and share the 80km/h single lane road with semi-trailers.
The temple serves up to an extraordinary 500 people daily with a communal meal – also known as a langar – for not just Sikhs but visitors from all backgrounds and religions.
The langar is from 5am to 9pm every day with over 2,000 served over the weekend.
