By CASEY NEILL
NOBLE Park residents are demanding action on overdevelopment in their suburb.
Level crossing removal was also a hot topic at the Noble Park Community Action Forum at Paddy O’Donoghue Centre on Wednesday 7 October.
Noble Park resident Felix De Nyagui said Level Crossing Removal Authority said the tender process for grade separations at Heatherton, Chandler and Corrigan roads hadn’t been finalised.
“But we were given assurances that by January 2016 we will know the specifics – whether it will be an underpass or overpass,” he said.
“That’s what the community was really concerned about.
“That was really important for the traders.
“A lot of people were concerned about the impact it would have on Heatherton Road and the traffic.
“Would people be able to make right hand turns from Ian Street and the other streets that run along Heatherton Road?”
Mr Nyagui said there was a large and passionate turnout.
“There was also a lot of passion shared about what many people perceived as overdevelopment in the Noble Park area,” he said.
He said he wasn’t opposed to redevelopment, just multistorey developments with ramifications for parking and overshadowing.
Mr Nyagui asked council representatives to hold a forum regarding the topic.
Councillor Roz Blades urged the residents to write to their local parliamentarians to request a meeting because it was a State Government issue.
The Community Action Forum (CAF) chairwoman said she would also write to MPs.
“The residents are right to be frustrated,” she said.
“I’m as frustrated as they are at the lack of listening to them. Everything goes to VCAT.”
She’s “cheesed off” with developers moving into older areas and failing to take parking and amenity into account.
“We’re all the time speaking to the government planning department about what we can do,” she said.
Cr Blades said the forum was “one of our best”.
“The place was packed,” she said.
“We heard about CCTV, crime stats from the police.
“There are going to be 15 CCTV cameras. That was well-received.”
Cr Blades said the group had invited the level crossing removal representatives back to a meeting early next year for updates.
“We stressed to them that we were looking for rail under the road, because the Springvale station model had worked so well,” she said.
