Community calls for bus connection

MEMBERS of the Winter Valley community are lobbying for a bus network to be established for the young suburb.

Jennifer Broadbent has lived in the area for two years and said the lack of public transport options has been an ongoing concern especially for commuting students.

“I’ve got three children aged 13, 10, and five, and my eldest goes to Ballarat High School which obviously we’re zoned to,” she said.

“We struggle to find someone to take him to school and often have to rely on friends mostly. Sometimes we have to use the Lucas bus but he has to wait for half an hour, 40 minutes.

“It’s not ideal. A bus is really needed here, not just for students but for the community.”

Ms Broadbent earlier this month drafted a petition lobbying for a bus network for Winter Valley.

The petition reached 140 signatures after five days, and has been submitted to Member for Wendouree, Juliana Addison.

“Someone told me they’ve been trying to get this going for years now but I don’t think anyone’s gone this far yet with advocating for this,” Ms Broadbent said.

“When I’ve got onto the transport map of where the buses go, there’s a big hole in this area. It also affects all the new estates like Ballymanus. The closest bus is on Cuthberts Road.”

Emmylou Dolotina has been renting in Winter Valley for a year, and is considering moving elsewhere to be closer to public transport.

“I do night shift so when I come home, I take my children to school and my partner picks them up,” she said.

“There are lots of times where I ask friends to take them because I’m too tired and there’ve been a couple times where they’ve even missed out on school.

“We’re actually looking at renting near Ballarat High School because it’s only getting harder. We wanted to live here, but we’re thinking, how long is it going to take to get a bus here?”

Ballarat High School student Hunter regularly has to get driven between different family members for his daily commute, and said the issue will continue to impact families if nothing changes.

“There’s all these other estates and all these people moving into these places and they’re not getting transport to school,” he said.

“If you’re zoned to a school, you should be given the proper transport through that.”