Knox streets used as 'rat runs' while Dorset Rd extension stalls

KNOX residents are tired of their streets being used as "rat runs" after more than 30 years of waiting for the duplication of Dorset Rd.

Ferntree Gully Liberal MP Nick Wakeling says a "significant amount" of work is required to establish if the Dorset Rd extension is still needed.

KNOX residents are tired of their streets being used as "rat runs" after more than 30 years of waiting for the State Government to duplicate Dorset Rd.

Councillors will write to the Minster for Transport Terry Mulder to ask for the State Government to urgently prioritise and then deliver the Dorset Rd extension in Ferntree Gully out to Lysterfield.

At a recent meeting councillors agreed to the lease of land at 8 Kevin Ave, Ferntree Gully that was originally acquired for the Dorset Rd extension in the 1970s for another two years.

>>> Are you one of the many affected by the delay? Email [e-mail]

Knox Mayor Karin Orpen said the residents had been waiting for the extension since the 1980s.

"We now sit here in 2013 with the same land, with the same acquisition overlays on it and we still don't have the Dorset Rd extension," Cr Orpen said.

She said Knox ratepayers were holding "substantial" tracts of land which had acquisition overlays on them, which were affecting some residents' retirement and future.

"Because I can tell you as the Dobson Ward councillor, people are quite tired of having their local streets being used as rat runs because people have nowhere to go when they leave Dorset Rd and hit Burwood Highway," Cr Orpen said.

"And if they wish to travel south they have to snake their way through and we often have this diversion into our local streets."

Cr Orpen said she "lived in hope" that someone would remedy the past failures of consecutive state governments.

Meanwhile, councillor Adam Gill said previous Friberg Ward councillor and current Ferntree Gully Liberal MP Nick Wakeling had initially been elected to his current position on the promise to extend Dorset Rd.

"As I recall … he (Mr Wakeling) was elected on the promise to extend Dorset Rd and some years later we are still leasing out our factories … where that Dorset Rd extension is meant to be," Cr Gill said.

But Mr Wakeling denied he made that commitment and said a significant amount of work would need to be done to establish whether the extension was still needed.

"We need to determine whether the need for an alignment still exists," he said.

"If it does, we would need to go through a process of looking at cost, planning and design.

"To date there has been a broad view that the need was not immediate," Mr Wakeling said.