New humps for hoons

By Shaun Inguanzo
GREATER Dandenong council will spend $16,000 testing speed cushions in a hoon-plagued street.
Trewin Street, in Dandenong South, was the centre of controversy in May last year when residents installed their own rubber speed humps to stop hoons from speeding and performing doughnuts, burn-outs and other illegal driving manoeuvres.
Council workers tore up the speed humps the following day, and the then-mayor, Keysborough South Ward councillor Peter Brown, urged the council to fine the residents for drilling holes in the road’s surface.
But this week a report to council from traffic and road safety team leader Mary Dallas recommended that the council address the residents’ concerns by installing two rubber speed cushions on the street, monitor them for six months and remove them if the trial was unsuccessful – at the cost of $16,000.
The installation may not take place until the next financial year, according to Ms Dallas’ report.
“The trial would be undertaken as soon as funding is available and if savings (in the City Improvement Program for the 2006-07 financial year) are not forthcoming the trial would be implemented in July 2007 as part of the 2007-08 CIP.”
Residents will have their say on the cushions at the end of the trial via a council survey, Ms Dallas’ report said.