By Ewen McRae
Melton council will construct a dedicated right-hand turning lane into the Taylors Hill Shopping Centre from Gourlay Road in response to safety concerns.
The move follows a notice of motion from Cr Lara Carli, who said the current arrangements at the centre led to a number of near misses between pedestrians and traffic.
The centre’s current entrance on Gourlay Road can only be accessed by south-bound traffic, so cars are known to perform U-turns at the nearby Hume Drive intersection to access the centre.
“The reason I put this motion through in the first place was because it is so dangerous at the intersection of Gourlay Road and Hume Drive at the moment, with cars doing U-turns there where it is also a school crossing,” Cr Carli said.
“It’s quite dangerous there when cars are trying to get through, because the lights are going to change.
“The majority of those cars that are banked up on Gourlay Road to turn right on to Hume Drive don’t turn right but do a U-turn to get back into the shopping centre.
“I’m worried that there’s going to be an accident there – it’s just a disaster waiting to happen.”
Council officers investigated the current arrangements and recommended against constructing a dedicated right turn lane into the shopping centre, due in part to concerns about potential illegal right turns from the centre on to Gourlay Road.
The officers also had concerns about the $190,353 price tag for the project.
Council planning and development manager Luke Shannon said it would be better to monitor the current situation and install bollards along the median strip to prevent illegal turns from or into the centre.
“It’s acknowledged that some residents do have issues accessing the centre, however based on the assessment that’s been undertaken, the current arrangements are satisfactory,” he
said.
Council voted against the officer recommendations and instead called for the right-hand turn lane to be implemented.
