WIDENING of part of Hume Drive near Kings Rd is set to go ahead in the 2008-09 financial year.
Draft council budget documents leaked to Star show it proposes to allocate $1million for part of the Hume Drive widening project, which will benefit Aquagardens traders and local residents.
Star reported on 22 April that Aquagardens traders had complained that Kings Rd duplication work was causing havoc for customers trying to get to the site. Aquagardens spokesman Frank Ozbeyhun said that shops had lost 30 to 40 per cent of their business since VicRoads started work on the corner of Kings Rd and Hume Drive to replace the roundabout with traffic lights.
The Aquagardens shopping centre has 12 shops – ranging from a bakery to an Indian restaurant and a bottle shop – and includes the electorate office of the State Member for Keilor, George Seitz.
Salera’s Pizza and Pasta owner Michael Salera said he had lost 25 per cent of his pick-up business and his delivery business had dropped 15 per cent.
He said it took longer for the drivers to get to destinations because of the difficult road layouts.
Taylors Ward councillor Natalie Sulyeman, who helped the traders raise their traffic issues with council officers, said the widening of Hume Drive would benefit both traders and local residents, and being an arterial road, the project required immediate action.
The cost of duplicating Hume Drive between Kings Road and the municipal boundary with Melton has been estimated at $3.33 million.
Meanwhile, long-awaited new sporting chnge rooms at Errington Reserve in St Albans will go-ahead in the next year.
Council has allocated $410,000 towards the project.
A further $400,000 has been allocated for changing room sat McKechnie Reserve.
