Council workers remove speed humps last Friday which were installed three days earlier by Trewin Street residents.By Shaun Inguanzo
GREATER Dandenong council has ripped-up speed humps vigilantly installed by Dandenong South residents who say they are sick of hoons putting their children’s lives at risk.
Trewin Street residents, tired of six years of fruitless council-lobbying, bought several rubber speed humps from a hardware store and bolted them to the road on Tuesday last week.
But, the council removed them last Friday morning.
Mayor Peter Brown has denounced the residents’ action.
He said he would like to see council fine those who laid them.
“Why not?,” he said.
“We have got 120,000 people in Greater Dandenong and we can’t have people taking the law into their own hands.”
But Trewin Street residents say they reached boiling point after council failed to act on a letter it sent in 2002 to those who signed a petition in 2001, stating it would work with them to catch hoons.
According to residents, hoon drivers speed, throw bottles, swear loudly and perform burnouts on weekends and evenings.
Trewin Street resident John Duben said residents installed speed humps because council did not fulfil its commitment.
“We have fought for six years to get things done. Drivers do burnouts and then fly up the road,” he said.
Neighbour Eddie Durak said he feared for the safety of Trewin Street children, with up to 30 playing on the road each weekend.
“Who pays if the kids get run over? Who pays for a life?,” he said.
Dandenong traffic police supervised last Friday’s removal and Senior Sergeant Alan Dew described the speed hump dilemma as a ‘unique’ experience.
He said both Dandenong traffic and regular police would target the area in a bid to catch troublesome drivers.
City of Greater Dandenong engineering services director Tim Tamlin said the speed humps were removed because they did not meet Australian standards and posed a liability risk to council. Mr Tamlin said he was ‘lost’ on the issue because it wasn’t raised at a traffic management forum in the area six months ago, despite claims of extensive council lobbying.
“The funny thing is we didn’t know about it,” he said.
“We had a traffic consultation process and this issue wasn’t raised again.”
Mr Tamlin said traffic counters had since been installed with results and further consultation with residents taking place in two weeks.
DRRA president Jim Houlahan said there could be safety and legal risks with installing the humps, but it was a great way to mobilise council into action.
“It signals the level of frustration many people experience in that many council community type issues are not being listened to by the council or bureaucrats,” he said.
Dandenong Ward councillor Jim Memeti said he did not condone the move, but acknowledged a hoon problem and said he would meet with residents immediately to work on a solution.
