Mernda ambulance station still closed five months after being finished

A new $4.1 million ambulance station in Mernda is still unused despite being finished five months ago “ahead of schedule”.

The Mernda ambulance branch remains fenced off. Picture: Hamish Blair

Mernda’s $4.1 million ambulance branch remains unused five months after it was “completed” with no one able to say when it will be operational.

The branch remains fenced off from Plenty Rd, with driveways yet to be completed.

This is despite then Ambulance Services Minister Jill Hennessy announcing 16 paramedics were due to move into the station by the end of 2018 during a visit to the site on October 30.

A visit to the branch by the Leader last week showed the immediate access ways off Bridge Inn Rd were incomplete and the site was littered with road cones, machinery and wire fences.

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A Department of Health and Human Services spokesman, who refused to be named, confirmed to Whittlesea Leader construction of the branch had been “completed ahead of schedule”.

But he could not comment on the road works.

RCL Group chief executive David Wightman, whose company was contracted by VicRoads to finish the associated utility and access requirements, said the work was being completed in accordance with a contract and it was not behind schedule.

Mr Wightman did not respond to questions about when the work would be finished.

Mernda residents have taken to social media to voice their frustration about the branch.

Kylie Somerville said residents deserved answers.

“Such an important and incredible service (is) sitting there empty,” Ms Somerville said.

Glenn Sansome said he had a young family and would feel “safer” knowing a Mernda branch was operational.

Health Minister Jenny Mikakos did not respond to questions about why the completion of the branch had not been scheduled to coincide with that of the access ways.

She would only say the branch would offer 24-hour care and “meet rising demand in one of the nation’s fastest growing communities”.

Paramedics due to work at the Mernda branch have been operating from Diamond Valley during construction.

VicRoads did not respond to questions about the branch, when the associated work would be completed or why the work was not timed to be completed at the same time as the branch.

Yan Yean state Labor MP Danielle Green did not respond to questions.