Let’s talk TRAFFIC!

We’re having a public forum, at 6.15pm on Tuesday, May 16 at The Golden Fleece Hotel, 120 Montague St, South Melbourne and we are going to talk traffic. Why traffic you might ask? Why not urban design, governance and infrastructure?

Yes they too are important questions and we will have time to address these at the other two forums that we will hold in August and November this year.

Traffic, however, affects 100 per cent of the lives of all those currently living and working in Montague and those that will be moving into the nearly completed properties in Gladstone and Montague streets in the very near future.

And, of course, let’s not forget the 2018 opening of the South Melbourne Primary School and all the additional street activity that will bring.

So what do we mean by “traffic”?

  We mean the movement and parking of any trucks/vehicles/motor bikes/ bicycles/or other on-road activity that impacts the Montague Precinct.

Currently there has been no thought given to traffic movement or parking, other than the challenges faced by those working at Surveyors Place.

There are huge challenges, with massive articulated lorries driving down Boundary St, and the blocking of residential parking zones by the construction workers.

This constant traffic flow on the smaller streets is already having an affect on where residents want to walk their dogs and play with their children.

One family has already sold up … When at a 2017 community forum we asked the head of the State Government’s Task Force on Fishermans Bend what work had been done on looking at the impact of traffic management on the current situation in Montague, he said none!

C’mon we are meant to be a smart state and that means thinking not just about what will happen in the future but looking at the existential reality of today.

Montague St is completely inadequate to service the current amount of traffic never mind what will happen in 12-24 months and then, dear readers, there is the next 10 years!

All the stakeholders need to be engaged now on ensuring the amenity of Montague as a residential and business precinct that supports great quality of life, business and education.

Our forum on May 16 is a free event sponsored by Southbank Local News.

We will have a panel of relevant parties who can answer directly and with transparency your questions about traffic in Montague.

We have invited (to be confirmed) a senior representative of VicRoads, our local Member Martin Foley MP (a State Government cabinet minister), the mayor of the City of Port Philip, the principal of the South Melbourne Primary School and a Montague Precinct developer.

We will be confirming all the speakers in the May edition of this paper.

Please come along, have a say on the future of your businesses and your homes – we need action to create workable solutions for all of us in the Montague Precinct.

Let’s talk folks.

Trisha Avery - Convener