A Mount Atkinson resident has raised concerns about insufficient infrastructure and services in the estate and is calling for increased council investment.
Resident and Mount Atkinson Advocacy Forum member Karthik Kunjithapatham said he feels the recently adopted Melton council budget “continues a concerning trend of underinvestment in growth areas of Mt Atkinson, Olivia, and The Grandview [estates in] Truganina”.
“[This] is significantly impacting the day-to-day of every resident here,” Mr Kunjithapatham said.
“We have seen a lot of contributions coming from the developer, now over the past budgets for Mt Atkinson specifically, there were allocations for the sports reserve – and these were from the developer and Melton council … they’ve been the only major occurrence in the budget over the past three years.
“There is a significant gap in accessible community services in these estates of Mt Atkinson, Grandview and Olivia … a lot of the young members of the community in our area struggle to access basic services … Melton Library, local parks.”
Mr Kunjithapatham said some of the changes the Mount Atkinson Advocacy Forum is seeking include dedicated council resourcing to fast-track suburb creation, improved library access, upgrades to local parks, and funding for design work to duplicate Grand Boulevard.
“At this point, we residents – it doesn’t matter where it comes from, we just want to see something happen in the estate.”
A Melton council spokesperson said that as with any new fast-growing community, there is a partnership approach with developers and the state government.
“To date, council has delivered the Mt Atkinson Children’s and Community Centre, and we are planning for the delivery of Mt Atkinson Active Open Space, in partnership with the developer, Stockland,” the spokesperson said.
“We are also working closely with developers to help deliver infrastructure including roads, open space, sports reserves and community centres, identified within the Mt Atkinson Precinct Structure Plan,” they said.
The spokesperson said that at this stage, traffic volumes of the recently constructed Grand Boulevard demonstrate duplication is not yet required but will continue to monitor the volume.
They also said council has been advocating to the state for investment in transport, with the state committing to additional buses in the area as part of this year’s budget.
“There are four parks within the Mt Atkinson development, including Grizzly Bear Park and the nearby Dinosaur Park, with more earmarked for delivery in future years.”
