Site an eyesore

By Elizabeth Hart
LACK of progress on an unsightly construction site in Berwick Village has the chamber of commerce seeing red.
They believe the site has become an eyesore, while site barricades pose a hazard to shoppers.
The group plans to demand an explanation from Casey Council on the hold up, which is over a planning permit amendment.
The site, at Loveridge Walk, is boarded up while work has ground to a halt on a new National Australia Bank building. Barricades have constricted access to the arcade shops leading to Blackburne Square.
Village chamber of commerce members say the work is taking too long, broken glass and other rubbish litter the site, the corner is an eyesore, and shoppers are at risk of accident on the narrow footpath alongside the construction wall.
“Two people can’t pass in opposite directions at one section,” chamber president Harry Hutchinson said. “It is particularly dangerous for elderly people and at night.”
Mr Hutchinson also said the delay had made the corner a graveyard site.
The site has been seven months under construction, and previously the building had been vacant for four years after a video store closed.
An application for a planning amendment has held up construction.
Casey Council issued a permit in June 2007 for double-storey retail and office premises.
On 1 December last year the landowner applied to amend the permit to delete a condition relating to a car parking cash-in-lieu charge.
Council officers requested more information from the applicant on 19 December and are awaiting that information before reporting the matter back to the council for a decision.
A spokeperson from the council said the decision to suspend the building activity was the landowner’s, the permit from June 2007 was still valid, and the landowner could apply it.
Loveridge Walk is one of two arcades linking High Street with the car park and businesses behind.
The relocation of the NAB to the Loveridge Walk corner will create a banking hub in the centre of the village. Westpac Bank is on the opposite corner of the walk.