John Hardie requested that Greater Dandenong Council install traffic lights at the intersection of Walker and Mason Street Dandenong so he can access the Dandenong train station from his workplace. 33691 Picture: Stewart Chambers
By Bridget Cook
A VISION impaired Dandenong businessman feels he is being penalised for his disability and says the Greater Dandenong Council is doing nothing to help him.
John Hardie requested that council install a street light outside his workplace and a set of traffic lights at the intersection of Mason and Walker Street to help him access it each day. He said both applications had yet to be adequately met.
At present, Mr Hardie is unable to access the Dandenong train station from his workplace, the Australian Taxation Office, as Vision Australia assessed that there was no safe route.
He also said a street light is necessary out the front of his workplace to aid his Seeing Eye dog when they leave later at night.
Mr Hardie says he feels like a prisoner and is being denied a basic human right.
“If I want to use the train I have to risk my life crossing a busy, uncontrolled intersection, with a Seeing Eye dog,” Mr Hardie said.
“I am now forced to catch two buses. This substantially increases my travel time and I have to wait in a dark bus shelter at night where I have been attacked and robbed twice before.”
However the council’s chief executive officer John Bennie said the council had assessed the situation and responded appropriately.
“The council was not able to progress permanent infrastructure solutions, being traffic signals, permanent street lighting and a pedestrian crossing, due to a combined capital cost in excess of $600,000 and aligning this investment with a broad community benefit,” Mr Bennie said.
“In this case, spending more than $600,000 immediately would have meant delaying or downgrading other important project and servicing priorities.”
