Population growth in the Victorian suburb of Yan Yean is swallowing up local roads and leaving traders and residents frustrated
By Ruza Zivkusic-Aftasi | September 12, 2012
Dubbed as Australia’s housing boom electorate, population growth in the Victorian suburb of Yan Yean is swallowing up local roads and leaving traders and residents frustrated, Yan Yean MP Danielle Green says.
The northern suburb of Melbourne is bursting at the seams but has received no road funding in two years to keep up with demand.
The shifting of the urban growth boundary means that more people now call the electorate home, with the construction of new homes seeing an increase of freight volume on roads, Green says.
The electorate is the home for 60,000 residents and is located about 30km from Melbourne.
Green has called on the Minister for Planning Matthew Guy to organise a meeting with Minister for Roads Terry Mulder and the residents to work out a way in dealing with the “mayhem” that councils are suffering.
“The population is growing and so is the truck movement. Two years of no investment and cut backs to public transport and no intersection upgrade with roundabouts and traffic signals is causing significant problems,” Green says.
Travel time to the city has doubled due to congestion, with traffic at Epping Road and Kilmore Road at its busiest.
“The Government needs to stop ignoring the northern suburbs. I think that they have not recognised that when you are in government you need to govern for the whole of state, not just the parts of it that have voted for you,” Green says.
