THE 2013-14 state budget has delivered a mixed bag for Melbourne’s western suburbs, with funding for many items already announced before the official tabling yesterday.
BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS FOR BRIMBANK
– $52 million in funding to commence planning and works at seven dangerous level crossings around Melbourne including the Main Road East and West crossing in St Albans
– $14.7 million to operate 12 psychiatric assessment beds at Western Health
– $8 million to complete the Western Autistic School project in Laverton which will ensure a prep-to-year 12 school for families in Melbourne’s west
– $33 million for construction of three new schools in the west, including $11.5 million for a primary school in Melton West.
– $9.7 million for Western Region Health Centre (WRHC) to build a new dental clinic
BUDGET IMPACT ON WEST
Western suburbs Greens MP Colleen Hartland criticised the state government’s neglect of the public transport system in the west.
“The West is the fastest growing area in Melbourne yet has the worst public transport,’’ she said. ‘‘We are home to the most dissatisfied commuters, those on the Altona Loop, and the most overcrowded train line – the Werribee line. The government has ignored the facts and have sentenced the western suburbs population to another year of inadequate public transport and worsening traffic congestion.”
Funding was overlooked for a train station in Caroline Springs and the electrification and duplication of the Melton railway line and a plethora of road works.
However, Western Metropolitan Liberal MP Bernie Finn through his weight behind the budget.
“Its is now very clear that we have a government that takes Melbourne’s west seriously,” he said.
More to come in the next edition of the Weekly in your letterbox and online.
