By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
COUNCILLORS will seek to retract a letter sent from Greater Dandenong’s mayor that supported the East West Link project in inner-north Melbourne.
Cr Peter Brown said he was “extraordinarily disappointed” that councillors weren’t consulted prior to mayor Angela Long signing off a letter that supported the estimated $8 billion project on the basis of helping ease access to Greater Dandenong’s freight hub.
He was also confident most councillors didn’t share Cr Long’s view.
Cr Long had responded to a letter from City of Yarra mayor Jackie Fristacky seeking the council’s backing of Yarra’s campaign against the East West Link.
Cr Brown is set to call on councillors to endorse Yarra’s campaign at next Monday’s council meeting, effectively retracting Cr Long’s letter.
Cr Brown said the project would suck funding away from more worthy proposals, such as removal of level-crossings in Noble Park which affect “several million vehicle crossings a week” and blackspot level crossings in St Albans and Murrumbeena.
“We should take a lead role on how public money could be spent,” he said.
“East West Link will be depriving the public of critically needed funds for level crossing removal and other public transport projects,” Cr Brown said.
“It’s unacceptable and we need genuine and meaningful consultation.”
Cr Matthew Kirwan, who became aware of Cr Long’s letter after being contacted by a concerned Yarra councillor, said the Melbourne Metro Rail Tunnel rated as a more important project and would be shelved because of the East West Link.
“It is the Melbourne Metro project that will reduce road congestion as it will provide a direct public transport route for those working in St Kilda Road and the Parkville areas for the first time as well as improving the capacity of the (rail) system overall,” he said.
“The project is forecast to provide additional capacity for 24,000 passengers per hour initially, rising to 60,000 per hour when other capacity constraints of the network are removed.”
Cr Long said she signed a lot of letters that don’t come to councillors’ attention.
“The mayor is the spokesperson of the council; we’re not going to always agree 100 per cent,” she said.
Cr Long said arguing for the link – a toll-road funded by a public-private partnership – would not necessarily rule out major public transport projects.
“Our wishlist is long. We’d like more public transport in this area and we’re looking in some areas we have that don’t have any, such as in Keysborough.
“We’re advocating for more grade separation at our level-crossings.”
Cr Long said the link would have an impact on freight movements in Greater Dandenong.
“It might seem remote but 70 per cent of freight in Melbourne ends up in our city – it will help take traffic off congested roads,” she said.
