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Hope is important
SEAFORD mother Georgia Clarke hopes a new drug that eases symptoms of 10-yearold daughter Ally’s spinal muscular atrophy will be subsidised on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. See story Page 8. Picture: Gary Sissons
Young St bus space ‘shemozzle’ Bickering widens over space for buses along the street Neil Walker neil@baysidenews.com.au
THERE are no plans to widen road lanes for two-way traffic along Young St despite concerns there is not enough space for buses to pass parked vehicles without clipping wing mirrors. Transport for Victoria, “an umbrella organisation” established by the Labor state government in April to oversee VicRoads and Public Transport Victoria, says the width of traffic lanes on Young St are 3 metres wide at the south end and 3.2 metres wide at the north end of the street. Paths have been widened for pedestrians. “The Young St redevelopment has been constructed according to all relevant guidelines and regulations, but on-street testing has demonstrated that further work needs to be undertaken to allow for all bus services to operate from the interchange,” Transport for Victoria spokesman Adrian Darwent said. State Liberal MP for Hastings Neale Burgess, whose electorate includes part of Langwarrin, said in Parliament last Thursday (16 November) that transport projects initiated by the Andrews gov-
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ernment are an “absolute shemozzle”. “Buses [in Young St] … do not fit. From start to finish the total incompetence of this government and its local member were on show for all to see,” Mr Burgess said in Parliament. “Then the final insult was that vital public transport no longer fits down the street. “It is not as if these buses got fat overnight. The width of the buses was 255 centimetres [2.55 metres] before the project began and they were 255 centimetres when it ended. That is not a surprise. The roadway is 275-centimetres [2.75 metres] wide, leaving buses with just 10 centimetres on each side.” “VicRoads has had to employ a fulltime traffic warden just to try and get the buses down the street.” “After 12 months of bungling and incompetence from the member for Frankston and the Premier, the community of Frankston was promised Young St would finally be back to normal by the end of October, but of course it was not.” The Department of Transport confirmed turning circles are “a bit tight” when some buses enter new bus bays along Young St and modifications will follow. Continued Page 3