Crossing call for County

By Rebecca Fraser
A NEW school crossing is needed on County Drive, Berwick to avoid a “nightmarish” situation.
That was the message at Casey’s last council meeting of 2005, when Springfield Ward councillor Michael Farley moved that council consider building a crossing on the busy stretch of road.
Cr Farley said traffic had become a real problem on County Drive because Gwendoline Drive in Berwick had not been made a through road.
“Council needs to look into the viability of introducing a new school crossing there as a lot of traffic is diverted in different ways and onto County Drive because Gwendoline Drive has not been finished,” he said.
“It is important that children go to and from school without the fear of being run over.”
Councillor Lorraine Wreford agreed, and said there were also concerns that the new Centre Road Primary School, which opens this year, would add to traffic pressures and could put children at risk.
“With the new school and the unfinished road the situation could be quite nightmarish.
“I support the need for a crossing there,” she said.
As previously reported in the News, Gwendoline Drive has been the cause of a lot of anger and frustration among Berwick residents, who claim council has failed to fulfil a 20-year promise to develop the road into a through road.
But what has angered residents more is that the two ends of Gwendoline Drive have already been developed and only 140 metres of land remains in the middle, which needs to be developed to turn the drive into a through road.
More than 200 people signed a petition in November calling on Casey Council to ease traffic congestion on County Drive and nearby Bellevue Avenue.
Cr Wreford also presented two letters to the last council meeting of 2005 from enraged residents living near Gwendoline Drive which asked where the money went that was allocated to the road project more than 15 years ago.
One of the tabled letters, from Berwick resident Barbara Goodier, contained Freedom of Information data dating back more than two decades. The information stated that the Victorian Road Authority and the former Berwick council agreed in May 1984 that a payment of $150,000 be given to the council for the project, known as the Golf Links Deviation Road Gwendoline Drive.
Ms Goodier said the data stated that part of the $150,000 was spent on putting crushed rocks at the Golf Links Road end, $17,000 was paid to the family that owned the land required, and money was also spent on solicitors’ fees and fencing.
Cr Wreford moved that a report into the concerns raised in the letters be conducted and presented back to council as a matter of urgency.
“This has been a long and drawn out issue and these residents feel very passionate and very frustrated about this matter.
“The road has been slowed up, council has slowed it up, and we need a report to come back to council as soon as possible,” she said.