In Parliament

Adjournment - Glen Huntly Crossing, Elwood

ADJOURNMENT – GLEN HUNTLY CROSSING, ELWOOD.

Thursday, 29 October 2020

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (19:50):

My Adjournment matter is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, and the action I seek is for the State Labor Government to commit budget funding to install a proper pedestrian crossing on Glen Huntly Road in Elwood.

The Elwood community has been calling for a proper crossing on Glen Huntly Road nearby to Elwood Primary School for a decade. The site desperately needs electronic speed limit signs and pedestrian-operated traffic signals.

Glen Huntly Road is a dangerous and busy thoroughfare. Hundreds of locals and children cross there daily. A pedestrian crossing at the site would service several schools, a childcare centre and the heavily utilised pedestrian thoroughfare, which joins both sides of the Elster canal walking path.

Shlomo, who attends the wonderful Elwood Primary School, recently wrote to me:

There are lots of young children that go to the schools in Elwood. I believe that the lack of pedestrian crossing is a major problem as more and more children go to both of these schools.

The most recently available VicRoads crash data shows that over the five years to 2018 there were 17 incidents along the Glen Huntly Road strip near Elwood Primary School. Eight of those incidents resulted in an injury.

To put the minor nature of this safety initiative into context, the Parliamentary Budget Office has estimated that the desperately needed safety initiative would cost $900 000.

Alarmingly VicRoads has acknowledged the urgency of need, advising, and I quote:

There exists demand for a crossing …

and the site has been listed, quote:

… for consideration for a signalised pedestrian crossing with a high priority.

Let me repeat: a high priority.

VicRoads has confirmed their alarm.

In 2018, the Liberal Party committed to install such a crossing if elected. By comparison, the State Labor Government missed the mark and installed a speed sign hundreds of metres down the road, nowhere near the dangerous crossing site.

This government has a track record of ignoring my community and not giving us our fair share.

The Elwood community has been calling for a proper crossing on Glen Huntly Road. They need a crossing, but most of all they deserve a crossing.

With the upcoming State Budget in mind, I call on the Minister and the State Labor Government to step up and do the right thing for the safety of the Elwood community.

I look forward to the Minister’s response.