2016-08-18
Residents on Hyde Street, Yarraville have banded together to call for the Andrews Government to end their uncertainty and commit to offering voluntary acquisition of their homes due to the impacts of the Western Distributor.
The recently released reference design confirms that all dangerous, placard trucks will be funnelled off the West Gate Freeway and onto their street on their way to the Port and refineries, in addition to the hazard of the ExxonMobil Yarraville Oil Terminal being located directly opposite their homes.
These houses have already had VicRoads acquisition overlays in place for years and have suffered great uncertainty and financial hardship from not being able to sell their homes for a reasonable price as a result of government policy changes on the issue. The chances are very high that in the coming years their acquisition overlay will be used so that Hyde Street can be widened as it will become the major grade-level truck route to the Port of Melbourne, as per the West Gate Distributor proposal which is already under construction.
“Thanks to the VicRoads acquisition overlay we have been unable to sell our houses for a decent price and have been living with the stress and uncertainty for many years as the government chops and changes direction on how to deal with the container trucks,” said affected local resident Emma Honey, representative of the Yarraville Homes Acquisition Group.
“Noisy and risky construction works on all sides for the next six years, massive increases in dangerous truck movements along our street and broad public awareness of this makes our homes virtually unsellable and our quality of life will be just terrible. We must be voluntarily acquired as soon as possible.”
“After all these years of uncertainty we deserve an answer. But the Andrews Government won’t even meet with us, which is really concerning.”
“We know enough about the design now to know without a doubt that we will be heavily impacted by the truck off-ramps, so it’s just so disappointing that the government is insisting we have to wait even longer and seems not to care about the stress it is creating on us.”
“Residents on our street include families with young children and a woman who has lived here for 45 years. We all want to be acquired for a decent price, so we can move to home in the neighbourhood that won’t be on a new major truck route or plagued by construction,” said Ms Honey.
Colleen Hartland, Greens MP for the Western Suburbs, is backing the resident’s call for voluntary acquisitions and has been supporting residents to have their voice heard by the Government.
"If CityLink is anything to go by, Transurban will make billions from this new tollway. The least they can do is spend a few million acquiring the homes of families whose front yard will become the superhighway for dangerous container trucks destined for the Port," said Colleen Hartland.
“The Government has taken the positive step of offering voluntary acquisitions for the elevated rail project in the south-eastern suburbs. It is only fair that a similar approach be taken to these houses, which will be so negatively affected by the Western Distributor truck off-ramps.”
“The Andrews Government has boasted that no houses will be acquired for the Western Distributor. This is a poorly thought through claim, and I hope that this won’t be a barrier for them doing the right thing by these residents as soon as possible,” said Ms Hartland.