By CASEY NEILL
KEYSBOROUGH South campaigners are celebrating big education wins in the 2016-17 state budget.
They welcomed a new bus route for the area announced in the document, released on Wednesday 27 April, but said it didn’t go far enough.
Keysborough South Action Group (KSAG) spokeswoman Nina Kelly attended an Education Department briefing at Parliament House just hours after the budget announcement.
She applauded the State Government and Keysborough MP Martin Pakula for delivering the first stage of a new school – money to buy land.
“For residents, this school site has been a long time coming,” she said.
“The land acquisition is one great step forward for residents in the new estates of Keysborough.
“However, the community still needs surety in relation to an opening date.”
Ms Kelly said campaigning would continue with the aim of securing a prep to year 12 school open for the 2018 school year.
“My youngest is two years of age and starts prep in 2019,” she said.
“I want the school open in time for him to walk to school with our neighbours.
“My eldest starts prep next year so we will have to drive the six-lane gauntlet of Dandenong Bypass and Cheltenham Road to get to him to school safety.”
Greater Dandenong councillor Matthew Kirwan said a bus route servicing the burgeoning Keysborough South would enable residents to travel by bus to Parkmore Shopping Centre and access the Noble Park and Frankston train lines for the first time.
“My previous concerns with coverage and frequency, however, remain,” he said.
“This will start to address the problem of public transport in this area but won’t solve it.
“I am concerned that a poor frequency to start off will result in a service that is underutilised and hide the huge demand for this service which would be demonstrated by starting off with a much more regular frequency.”
Cr Kirwan said a loop bus route going from Parkmore via Cheltenham, Chapel, Hutton and Perry roads and then up to Noble Park Railway Station would have achieved this.
He said further bus routes would be needed to get residents to and from the new shopping centre at the Hutton and Chapel roads, the new school site, the Dandenong South industrial area for employment.
A bus route along Hutton and Greens roads between the Mordialloc and Narre Warren train stations would have achieved this, he said “and stimulated economic and hence jobs growth in Dandenong South”.
He said another bus route would be needed to take residents to either the Pakenham or Frankston line, “as this route only gets part of the new estates”.
“It still leaves the bus stops at the Greens Road end of Perry Road unused, meaning the area of Somerfield centred on the Tyers Road-Perry Road intersection is still un-serviced, despite being not within walking distance of Cheltenham Road,” he said.
