Sound barriers ‘broken’

By Jim Mynard
EUMEMMERRING MP Gordon RichPhillips said the State Government had not installed noise barriers along existing roads since 2003.
Mr RichPhillips said he was outraged at the Bracks Government’s continued failure to install noise barriers in the Soldiers Road area of Beaconsfield.
“According to information I received, the Government is not installing noise barriers but instead of having the decency to come clean on the matter they continue to lead the local community down the garden path,” Mr RichPhillips said.
“In May this year I asked a question in Parliament regarding the installation of noise barriers and have now received advice from the minister that no existing roads were fitted with noise barriers in 20042005 and to date nothing has been earmarked in this year’s budget for noise barriers.
“The Minister for Transport, Peter Batchelor, is happy to say that three sites between the Clyde Road overpass and the Princes Highway, east of the overpass, are on a list of 19 sites across Victoria awaiting funding.
“But unless the Government has a change of heart and puts some funding behind these projects it doesn’t matter where you are on the list it simply is not going to happen.
“Beaconsfield residents have been messed around since prior to the last state election when Narre Warren South MP Dale Wilson led them to believe that the installation of sound barriers to their area would be given some sort of priority.
“Three years on not only are their noise barriers unimportant but so are the other sites across the state.
“As is rapidly becoming the norm in this area, the only hope we have of getting infrastructure is if we can find someone else to pay for it, as with the Bryn Mawr bridge, the traffic lights at Tivendale Road, Officer, and Enterprise Avenue, Berwick.
“The same now goes for noise barriers.
“The Bracks Government has made an art form out of playing ‘pass the buck’.
“I have applied under Freedom of Information for a list of the 19 sites across the state that are currently awaiting installation of noise barriers.
“Even though it would appear I am banging my head against a brick wall I will continue to lobby the Government to install noise barriers on behalf of the community.
“It is time for the Government to either install these barriers or come clean that it has scrapped the entire project.”
Mr Wilson said he had written to Mr Batchelor in strong terms asking for the barriers.
He said earlier this month that he had also asked residents for more information about how the situation impacted on their lives.
“We need to know the effect the noise is having on families and their lives,” he said.
Mr Wilson said he argued strongly that the barriers should be built, but others argued for other roadworks to be completed.
He said some residents had responded to his request that would help provide a detailed case.
“This is a very difficult situation because we have the question of what effect this has on people,” Mr Wilson said.
“We need to know what the difficulty is.
“We have to consider what is more important, road safety or disturbed sleep.”