Herbert Street blues

By Nicole Williams
THE great debate about the closure of Herbert Street Dandenong is raging again.
At last week’s Dandenong Council meeting, Councillor Peter Brown called for an urgent meeting between Mayor Roz Blades, City of Greater Dandenong CEO John Bennie, engineering services director Bruce Rendall, Dandenong High School principal Martin Culkin and the Minister for Education Martin Dixon to discuss the possible re-closure of the road.
Herbert Street splits the two campuses of Dandenong High School and was closed for a trial last year following concerns for students’ safety, as they frequentlywalked between the campuses during the day.
It was re-opened and $300,000 was allocated for traffic calming measures in the council budget.
But Cr Brown said a recent accident where a student was hit by a car on the street and the announcement of a $10 million redevelopment of the school would impact on pedestrians, and urgent action was needed.
“It just shows the mix of trafficand students is a dangerous mix,” he said.
“And with the new $10 million development, the flow of students will increase astronomically.”
Cr Brown said the accident and the redevelopment were extra reasons a full closure of Herbert Street was necessary for safety reasons.
“Certainly since the student was injured and the redevelopment was announced, these will be dynamic facts all together,” Cr Brown said.
Cr Brown is hoping the information gathered during the meeting,coupled with the recent accident,will force the councillors to agree that keeping the road open is putting lives at risk.
“What I wanted to do was take the course of action that, with the strong flow of information, would ask the councillors to reconsider (closing the street),” he said.
The outcome of the meeting will be presented to the councillors on Monday 30 May.