By Christine
VICTORIA University is adding its voice to the chorus of demands for the State Government to spend more on road and public transport infrastructure in the West.
Dr Pieter Nagel, director of the university’s institute for logistics and supply chain management, held a forum last week to highlight the importance of Positioning the West for the Future.
“The project we are doing incorporates a whole range of logistics across the West,” he said.
Mr Nagel said the City of Maribyrnong had a key role in the repositioning of the West as Footscray was designated as a transit city and is part of the State Government’s “decentralisation of Melbourne”.
“I am of the opinion that in time there has to be some very significant actions to get Footscray really on the transit city agenda,” he said. “A significant amount of money is going to other suburbs, for example Dandenong. There is no indication of anything coming to Footscray.”
“There seems to be a discrepancy … there seems to be an inequality in the allocation of funding.”
Dr Nagel also said the issue of trucks using residential streets needed to be addressed. He said part of the problem in addressing issues around road, rail and public transport was consolidating a number of reports.
“We have a data base of more than 400 reports on the logistics related matters in the broader Melbourne area,” Dr Nagel said. “There are 107 that we have on record that is only concerned with the West.
“The problem is we have more than a 107 reports and we all address different things, one talks about the West Gate bridge, one talks about the rail line and there is no consolidated plan that really addresses the latest development.”
The State Government recognised the need for a consolidated report and was expected to release the Inner West Integrated Transport Strategy last year.
