One servo opens but two others are going slow

THE first of the three planned service stations for the wider Surf Coast area is up and running and the second is seeking tenants, but progress appears to have stopped on the third.

The Woolworths/Caltex service station at The Dunes Village Shopping Centre in Torquay North opened for business on June 23.

The service station on Fischer Street will be popular with shoppers low on petrol but may be a source of resentment for some of the neighbourhood’s residents, who were bitterly opposed to the planning application for the site, which was rejected by the Surf Coast Shire but overruled by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Further to the north alongside the Surf Coast Highway, real estate agent Colliers is advertising two retail tenancies for the planned Shell service station to be built on Winki Way in the West Coast Business Park.

The two tenancies, of 60 square metres and 65 square metres approximately, are advertised as “suitable for café/food or retail”.

The planned carwash at the site is under construction but the service station itself has fallen behind, as Colliers’ listing states the servo was due for completion in Easter of this year.

Even further behind is the Apco service station, which is being built on the corner of Lower Duneed Road and the Surf Coast Highway (just to the north of the shire’s border).

Similar to the Woolworths/Caltex site, the Apco service station application was escalated to VCAT, and the City of Greater Geelong was directed to issue a planning permit on November 17, 2016.

Temporary fences were installed and land clearing began in February 2017 but nothing appears to have happened at the site for many months.

Apco director Peter Anderson did not respond to a request for comment before deadline.