By Danielle Kutchel
Cranbourne’s new community hospital is set to go ahead at a site in the Casey Complex – but it seems despite the council’s assurances, the community’s concerns have not been allayed.
At its council meeting on Tuesday 15 June, the City of Casey approved a land sale 65 Berwick-Cranbourne Road, Cranbourne East to the Victorian Health Building Authority (VHBA) for the construction of the facility.
The decision had first been foreshadowed earlier this year; the preferred site was first identified in February and at a council meeting on Tuesday 20 April, the council heard from people with concerns about the hospital site and tabled the public submissions received on the project.
A total of 38 submissions were received, with the majority against the hospital at that particular site for traffic and parking reasons.
Speaking to Star News Group on Tuesday 29 June, Tammy Bower from the Casey Basketball Association – which presented significant concerns to council about parking for its facility should the hospital go ahead – said the association was not comfortable with the council’s decision.
“We’re not happy, because car parking at the stadium is already exhausted,” she said.
She said the association was still none the wiser as to whether hospital parking would be paid or free.
“Monash Health charges everywhere else and their parking lots are always full,” she said, adding that if visitors were made to pay for hospital parking, she expected that they would look to park in the free parking elsewhere in the Casey Complex.
“That’s a big thing for us, we will probably have people at the hospital trying not to pay for it and park in our parking that’s free for members – therefore there will be less room to park.
“We haven’t seen anything that says they’ll put in any extra free parking for us,” she said.
Ms Bower added that she still had concerns about traffic management in the area if traffic volumes increase around the hospital, and said she was keen to see plans for how this would be managed.
Debbie Schramm of Casey Netball Association said their main concern about the proposed hospital remains the parking situation.
“We’re already at capacity here, it’s a big precinct and a lot of activities go on here,” she said.
Traffic management was also a problem, she added.
“The infrastructure around here is terrible and the hospital is going to impact it even more.
“We’re not opposed to the hospital but we want to make sure they plan the impact it will have with traffic and parking,” she said.
Balla Balla Community Centre also stands to be directly impacted by the hospital’s construction.
The Centre has been given ten years to plan for its future, with the site to be swallowed up by the hospital.
“Balla Balla Community Centre fully supports the new Cranbourne Community Hospital which will be a great local asset,” the organisation said in a statement.
“We understand that there have been concerns within the community about the future of Balla Balla.
“We want the community to rest assured that it will be ‘business as usual’ for the Centre. We will continue to provide service, activities and space to the community, as we always have.”
In the meantime, the Centre will work with the council over the next decade on plans for its relocation.
City of Casey chair of administrators Noelene Duff said that a number of measures will be undertaken by the Victorian Health Building Authority (VHBA) to manage traffic and parking in the surrounding area, and the council would be a partner in this process.
“In conjunction with building the new hospital, the VHBA has also committed to deliver two key roads in the Casey Complex,” Ms Duff said.
“These roads form part of the future transport network and will provide access to the hospital once operational and connect the rest of the Casey Complex in the future.”
As part of the hospital development 300 car parks will be built to cater for the expected demand of visitors.
The City of Casey is advocating for unpaid parking however ultimately this will be up to Monash Health, the hospital’s future operator.
