Dust will remain a fixture of Brooklyn for the foreseeable future following Brimbank council’s decision to throw out its special- charges scheme that asked landowners to pay to have Bunting Road sealed.
The move follows the council’s recent defeat before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which ruled that a similar proposal for nearby Jones Road, Brooklyn, was invalid.
The VCAT order was based on a finding that the Jones Road project would deliver a positive benefit for the wider community, thereby obligating the council to contribute towards the cost of the $2.7 million work.
The council’s proposal stipulated that 15 landowners cough up between $654 and $364,360, depending on factors such as land area, access and amenity, to fund the road works.
Asked byStar Weekly why the council had deemed the project to have no wider community benefit, Brimbank council’s infrastructure and environment director, Paul Younis, said it was virtually impossible to determine.
He said the council could not find a way to define a direct and tangible benefit.
Council administrators Jane Nathan and John Tanner passed a motion last week to continue working with landowners and the state government to identify other options for Jones and Bunting roads.
Brooklyn Residents Action Group president Bert Boere said the group was working on proposals of their own, such as the possibility of closing Jones Road to traffic and redeveloping Old Geelong Road.
“It’s just a thought at this stage,” Mr Boere said.
“Ideally, I’d liked to have seen works start early this year.”
