Whitten Oval works in West Footscray street cause havoc

RESIDENTS have pleaded with Maribyrnong Council to ban traffic in their street as congestion has led to their cars being boxed in.

RESIDENTS have pleaded with Maribyrnong Council to ban traffic in a West Footscray street as congestion has led to their cars being boxed in.

West Footscray residents Warren Penna and Greg Mason tabled a petition at the council meeting last month, which called for traffic in Cross St to be barred during the duration of the Whitten Oval redevelopment.

The petition, which has 81 signatures from people living in Errol and Buckingham streets, states the Whitten Oval works are causing a bottleneck around the area.

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Mr Penna, who lives in Buckingham St, said he had to wake-up at 5.30am every morning to move his car, to avoid becoming trapped in the driveway.

“I park it on Geelong Rd because we can’t get out of our driveway,” he said.

“It’s a two person manoeuvre to get the car into our driveway … we have to stop the traffic.

“It’s just a ridiculous situation.”

Traffic continues to cause havoc in Footscray. Picture: Hamish Blair

Mr Penna said he felt the problem had been put in the “too hard basket”.

The State Government had assigned land at the Geelong Rd end of Whitten Oval and Cross St and adjoining space to the Western Bulldogs Football Club for sport and community development purposes.

The works are set to transform the site with new seating and commercial, retail and residential development opportunities.

Residents stated in the petition they feared Cross St had been turned into a thoroughfare shortcut, endangering pedestrians and triggering drivers to perform “risky manoeuvres” to gain access to their driveways.

Maribyrnong chief executive Stephen Wall said a number of assessments were needed, including traffic counts and research into other local area traffic management plans in order to find a solution.

“There has been a lot of development on the Whitten Oval side of Cross St that probably is having a lot of impact,” Mr Wall said.

“I will bring a report back to council at a later date.”

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