THE Surf Coast Shire has updated its submission to the Anglesea Futures Draft Land Use Plan in the face of a significant backlash to a suggested change to the town\u2019s road network.<\/p>\n
Councillors considered an amendment to the submission at their April meeting.<\/p>\n
Part of the shire\u2019s original submission to the Anglesea Futures project in February included a suggestion to study changes to Anglesea\u2019s road network, with the existing route along Coalmine Road and Messmate Track, connecting to Harvey Street listed as \u201can option for consideration\u201d.<\/p>\n
Despite the submission explicitly stating \u201cthis will be to assist the movement of local traffic using a local road network and not result in an Anglesea ring road, highway or bypass\u201d, Corangamite federal member Sarah Henderson and some Anglesea residents said the option would be a \u201cpseudo-bypass\u201d, and the amendment aimed to provide clarity to the shire\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n
The amendment, moved and seconded by Anglesea councillors Libby Coker and Margot Smith, affirmed that the shire did not support changes that would see local residential streets used as an alternate route by users of the Great Ocean Road, and noted that Messmate Track was managed by Parks Victoria but the council believed that the track should not be upgraded for use as a road.<\/p>\n
The motion was questioned by Cr Heather Wellington, who asked: \u201cWas it a mistake that we put this in, or was it something that we put in intentionally but didn\u2019t realise there\u2019d be a community backlash on, or have people misinterpreted it?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did we think it was a good idea a month ago, and now we don\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, Cr Smith said one of the \u201cglaring absences\u201d in the draft use plan was that it did not talk about the potential impact on roads and traffic, and that she \u201ctook a fair bit of responsibility\u201d for the shire\u2019s submission and the subsequent events.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout enough thought about what the implications might be from a community sense, or the road or the track usage, we actually put an example in there that probably should not been in there, because it actually created a situation where community members looked at it, and rightly so, and saw something different to what we meant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do apologise sincerely to my community and hope that we can get a better outcome on this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE Surf Coast Shire has updated its submission to the Anglesea Futures Draft Land Use Plan in the face of a significant backlash to a suggested change to the town\u2019s road network. Councillors considered an amendment to the submission at their April meeting. Part of the shire\u2019s original submission to the Anglesea Futures project in […]<\/p>\n