By Ewen McRae
Discarded furniture and rubbish is causing dismay for users of the Melton station carpark.
The station carpark, on the corner of Exford and Staughton streets in Melton South, is littered with rubbish, including along the fence line and throughout the unpaved sections.
Under one tree are an old lounge chair, piles of rubbish and rotting food scraps – just metres from cars and the bus terminal.
Local resident and station user Brian Ewin said the rubbish had been a big problem at the carpark for a long time.
“It’s disgusting – and it’s been like that for years,” he said.
“It needs a really good clean … when you walk through that area every day, you really shouldn’t have to deal with looking at all that rubbish every single time.
“It just keeps accumulating. And, of course when you get a big bit of wind, it blows it all over the place and it just spreads further around.
“The carpark is chock-a-block now, too, so all that rubbish just encourages everyone to chuck their rubbish on the ground. They need to clean it up, put some bins around and maintain it.”
The carpark is owned and operated by Public Transport Victoria. Melton council is responsible for the nearby public toilets.
A spokesperson for PTV said it aimed to do regular maintenance of all its carparks.
“Station carparks managed by V/Line are regularly inspected, cleaned and maintained as part of our standard practices,” the spokesperson said. “When V/Line receives reports of large discarded or dangerous items, steps are taken to report the incident and co-ordinate removal as soon as possible.
“It may not always be safe and practical for litter and abandoned items in the rail corridor to be removed immediately by our staff for occupational health and safety reasons. However, we endeavour to act as quickly as possible.”
The spokesperson said an inspection of the carpark took place on May 27, with the results of the inspection unknown before Star Weekly went to print.
