By Victoria Stone-Meadows
Cranbourne West businesses on the corner of Thompsons Road and the Western Port Highway are concerned plans to upgrade the intersection will leave their businesses unreachable.
The plan for the intersection is part of the ongoing Thompsons Road upgrades, and will ultimately see the intersection have a flyover for traffic on the highway over the top of Thompsons Road.
However, the funding for that upgrade is not ready, and an interim solution of replacing the current roundabout with a signed four-way intersection with traffic lights has been proposed.
The business owners that operate from the site of the BP petrol station have raised concerns that the short term intersection will cut off traffic attempting to turn onto the centre from the left lane of Thompsons Road.
They have suggested that the plan include the construction of a road to link the back of the service station to Thompsons Road from behind The Lost Dog’s Home that operates next door.
The businesses, operators and land owner have been advised that the access road will be completed with the major intersection upgrade in years to come.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, Member for South-Eastern Metropolitan Region Gordon Rich-Phillips and Fawkner Property Group managing director Owen Lennie met with business owners and managers on Thursday 16 February to discuss the problem.
During the meeting Mr Lennie, who owns the land that the BP and associated businesses operate from, said it is a no-brainer to include the new road.
“What we want is this little road built along with the master plan so our tenants’ businesses are not affected, and so we can continue to serve the local area not just passing trucks,” Mr Lennie said.
“It is a question of the priority of works; we want them to do it at the same time as the intersection, but it might not be done until quite a lot later, so we would suffer disadvantage in the meantime.”
Red Rooster Franchisee Steve Beadle said without direct access to his business now and into the future, he faces severe financial hardship.
“I think it means businesses probably could be unsustainable because costs are so high we need every costumer we can get,” he said.
“Anything that makes it more difficult for customers to access the business makes it more difficult for businesses to continue to operate.”
He also said the current trend in the area towards high volume infrastructure needs to be better thought out for long-term solutions.
“Any infrastructure in the area needs to be sensitive to the people who already exist in the area that pay rates and contribute to the region as far an employment and services are concerned,” he said.
“I think there is a push for that type of development that is not long term or sustainable for the region.”
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said it would be more sensible to include the new road at the same time as upgrading the intersection.
“It makes a lot of sense, and it is not a great ask and not a huge cost if VicRoads is already doing major upgrades,” he said.
“The government needs to stop making it harder for businesses to operate and make it easier. Small business is the engine room of our economy.”
