Berwick Village Chamber of Commerce president Michael Hall, left, and chamber treasurer Neil Sutcliffe view part of the area near the Berwick Railway Station which could be capitalised on.BERWICK Village Chamber of Commerce has been struggling to get improvements to the Berwick shopping centre because of changes to plans, delays, and a range of excuses for holdups on its promised new streetscape.
The village also languishes in a lowgrade commercial garbage collection mess that is totally unacceptable, and with poor parking facilities.
These problems, I concede, are ‘slowly’ being dealt with, but Berwick needs bigger thinking and action in addition to its street beautification plans and revamped garbage collection.
Chamber president Michael Hall last week took this challenge on board when he foreshadowed some vigorous lobbying to give Berwick a complete makeover that would marry the education, medical, and Enterprise Avenue precinct with the High Street commercial centre.
He has again called for undergrounding of the Berwick Railway Station to allow a workable road design and provide for groundlevel development above the rail system. Ward councillors would be derelict in their duty if they failed to take these concepts on board.
Enormous opportunity exists to make the area a City of Casey showplace equivalent to any in the world, and because of this the chamber’s plan is deserving of serious consideration.
We are seeing the impact of big money which has put a dampener on the Casey plan to create a dream centre including new civic building, art centre and major theatre at Narre Warren.
The council has a welldeveloped plan to use land it owns in the civic precinct next to the Fountain Gate shopping centre that will create a shopping, service, and civic centre.
This would provide the municipality with a new civic centre, art centre and major performing arts centre at no cost to ratepayers.
But the idea doesn’t suit Westfield, so it is now being challenged before a government panel. The community needs also to be wary that big money is not permitted to do the same to Berwick Village by allowing the Monash University’s plan to sell off campus land for residential development and development of its own shopping precinct.
This would further divide the area, kill the Berwick Village commercial centre and provide little community or educational benefit.
This is opposed to the City of Casey plan that can do nothing but enhance the Westfield Centre at Narre Warren by providing considerably more retail traffic in the area.
The Gazette last year aired the chamber’s concept of putting Berwick Railway Station underground, but the reaction from some people was that it would cost too much.
My view is that it will cost much more to do nothing because the Clyde Road precinct is becoming gridlocked early in Casey’s development.
The precinct south of the railway line has a university, major TAFE college and one of Victoria’s top hospitals.
These institutions do not need to be in a gridlock area.
Mr Hall reignited the undergrounding issue at the chamber meeting on Monday, 15 May with a new gusto.
He warned of dire troubles with traffic and business if the work was not done.
Three days later during a conversation with a senior civil engineer, it was put to me that the Government might in any case be forced to underground the entire railway system because there is insufficient easement to increase the number of tracks.
This comes from talk of doubledecker trains or more lines to carry the increasing volume of passengers and freight.
The engineer noted the only bridge high enough for a doubledecker train on the Gippsland line would be the new Bryn Mawr Bridge at Berwick.
The advantages of the chamber’s plan are to create a freeflowing road system and to capitalise on thousands of square metres of retail and office floor space. The great minus would be to sit back, say nothing, and do nothing about this forwardthinking idea.
