JULY 5, 2017 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
NEWS + SPORT + THE WEST’S BEST PROPERTY GUIDE
Girls show good cents
(Marco De Luca)
Meet Werribee Primary School pupils Emily, Heaven, Meredith and Luella, who are fundraising superstars. The foursome collected 5050 five cent coins, which they donated to Zoos Victoria’s Common Cents Challenge. The grade 5 pupils presented their donation – more than $252 – to Werribee Open Range Zoo’s education officer Gen Johnson at a school assembly last month. The money raised will support Zoos Victoria’s Threatened Species Program, which breeds Eastern barred bandicoots and raises awareness of the species. The girls made a presentation about the zoo and Eastern barred bandicoots to the entire school and encouraged fellow students to collect and donate five cent coins. Emily, Heaven, Meredith and Luella hit their fundraising target of 5050 coins after about three weeks. Werribee PS is a long-term supporter of the Threatened Species Program, and pupils have raised hundreds of dollars over the past few years. For five years the school has also been part of the annual Love Your Locals program, which encourages young people to raise money for initiatives that boost the population of 21 endangered Australian animals. Details: zoo.org.au Alesha Capone
Roads loan a ‘bold’ plan By Charlene Macaulay Wyndham council will borrow $40 million to fast-track construction of the Armstrong-Ison Road link from Black Forest Road to the Princes Freeway. The council has highlighted the Armstrong-Ison Road project as the centrepiece of its Wyndham West development contribution plan, which will give Wyndham Vale and Manor Lakes residents direct access to the Princes Freeway without having to pass through Werribee’s CBD. In particular, the money will fund the construction of: • Ison Road between the Princes Freeway and Melbourne-Geelong rail line;
• Armstrong Road from Black Forest Road to Ballan Road; and • Armstrong Road between Ballan Road and the Werribee River. Works are expected to be completed in 2019. Other parts of the project have been funded by the council’s capital works program, developer contributions and the growth areas infrastructure contribution tax. Preliminary works have already begun on the $11.5 million extension of Armstrong Road between Greens and Black Forest roads, which has been funded in the council’s 2017-18 budget and will remove thousands of vehicles from local Wyndham Vale roads. The Wyndham West plan states that without the Armstrong-Ison Road link to the Princes
Freeway “there is a general consensus that … Wyndham west’s roads will very soon be at capacity in peak periods”. Cr Peter Maynard said the council was borrowing funds to complete the Armstrong-Ison Road link from Black Forest Road to the Princes Freeway in a timely manner. He called on the state government to fund the final piece of the puzzle – a four-lane Melbourne-Geelong rail line overpass. “Armstrong-Ison Road falls along the north-south spine from which Wyndham West will be developed,” he said. “This council will be borrowing $40 million to affect these works in a timely manner. “Council’s commitment to constructing phase one and two of these projects as a central
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platform of the Wyndham West development contribution plan would lend weight to the advocacy position that the state government should meet its obligation for the provision of the overpass at the earliest practicable time.” Fellow councillor Tony Hooper branded the move a “bold step” that took the lessons learned from Point Cook, where infrastructure was not built early enough to cater for future population demand. “We’re taking a step that says, that going forward, this community knows what’s going into the ground and will protect it from future infrastructure and development,” he said. “It’s forward thinking and definitely the way forward for the future.”