Build track, council told

By Alison Noonan
CASEY councillor Steve Beardon has slammed council for its failure to deliver on a promised BMX track for youngsters in Cranbourne’s Brookland Greens Estate.
Cr Beardon demanded council’s word that the track would be built within a month at last week’s council meeting following calls from frustrated residents.
The Mayfield Ward councillor claimed that council officers told locals during a recent public meeting that the BMX facility would be built before the school holidays but had failed to put shovel to soil.
“A BMX track is half a day’s work. I could go there tonight and start construction myself,” he said.
“An agreement was made during a public meeting that the BMX track would be built by the Friday but the minutes of this meeting went missing somehow through a ‘mishap’.”
Cr Beardon said local kids had endured a long wait for the track, with many parents prepared to build the facility themselves.
He called for the track to be completed by 3 April.
“It’s been a long time coming. Council has spent months promising and making commitments but I want a firm date that we can go with. It shouldn’t be that hard.
“I want your word it will be completed by the set date. A man’s word is a man’s word.
“Why do we have to go through this week after week?
“I’m not asking for Casey Arc, just a BMX track,” he said.
President Brookland Greens Residents Group Gordon Exner said he had mixed emotions about the result.
“We constantly offered to build it ourselves and had all the equipment and material ready,” he said.
“Then for them to turn around and say it would take a month for them to do it upset a few people.
“But at least a definitive date has been set.”
Mr Exner claimed recreational activities in the estate was limited and said the BMX track would be well utilised by older children.
“We put one together two years ago off our own bat but council said it didn’t meet its guidelines and pulled it apart.
“This is just replacing what was already there.
“Lots of kids want it. At the moment they are just riding over mounds of dirt left in the estate by developers or hanging around half a basketball court that is the only thing for kids over five.
“Hopefully this bike track is finished ASAP and the rest of the estate’s master plan will develop from there,” he said.