By Ruza Zivkusic
A FREE monthly bus service is about to enhance the lives of Brimbank’s senior citizens.
The service, organised by Keilor MP George Seitz and the Sunshine Police, is aimed at raising awareness of the need for more services for the area’s elderly.
Leading Senior Constable John Reader will drive the Street Surfer bus, which can take up to 17 passengers.
Sen Const Reader will pick up St Albans residents and drive them on a two-hour visit to Keilor cemetery.
Mr Seitz said elderly residents found it hard to get to the cemetery due to poor public transport, which took passengers only as far as Fullarton Rd, in Keilor Park, leaving them to walk up to a kilometre to the cemetery.
“It may be too windy, too cold and too hard if you were to walk with a walking frame or a walking stick,” he said.
“I have asked some bus companies to detour in the morning and in the afternoon to the cemetery, and they have refused.”
Mr Seitz’s initiative has been welcomed by Brimbank City councillor Kathryn Eriksson, who sits on the Keilor Cemetery Trust committee.
She described the free service as “humanitarian”, and said she was disappointed in the poor public transport services in Keilor.
“We’ve got to understand the needs of the elderly. In this day and age a lot of women are widows and they don’t have the driving skills. They’re reliant on relatives and friends or whoever to get to the cemetery,” Cr Eriksson said.
She also suggested the buses council owns, and uses for taking elderly residents to various functions, could possibly be used for driving them to the cemetery.
“It’s something that should be brought into the council chamber for further consideration.”
But former Casuarina Ward councillor Dorothy Costa, who sat on the Keilor Cemetery Trust committee, said she did not believe it was a “council issue”.
“It’s not a council asset. The council doesn’t get any money from it so I believe the State Government should be footing the bill for those sorts of things for the elderly residents,” Ms Costa said.
Mr Seitz said he had lobbied the government for three years to improve services for the elderly.
“If we perform the service for a few months, maybe some people will start to listen to us, but for some it is not their number one priority,” he said. “We have young councillors in Brimbank and they are probably more interested in football, cricket, soccer or childcare.
“If they were looking after their grandparents’ needs we wouldn’t need to have a bus to take them to the cemetery,” Mr Seitz said.
Elderly residents who wish to be included in the bus rides should contact Mr Seitz’s electorate office on 9449 1511.
