Canterbury Rd upgrades: Montrose CFA brigade wants more consultation on plans

MONTROSE CFA’s emergency call-outs could be affected if plans to fix traffic congestion on Canterbury Road go ahead, according to the brigade’s captain.

The spare lane along Canterbury Road, outside the Montrose CFA — which is used as parking space for the CFA staff. Picture: Daniel Pockett

THE Montrose CFA brigade’s emergency call-outs could be affected if plans to fix traffic congestion on Canterbury Rd go ahead, its captain says.

The brigade is calling for VicRoads to consider community concerns before making a decision on its plans to fix peak-hour congestion along Canterbury Rd from Dorset to Mt Dandenong Tourist roads.

Montrose Red Ribbons raises awareness of VicRoads’ $20m Canterbury Rd upgrade

The plans include putting in a third outbound lane and removing the roundabout, replacing it with traffic lights.

VicRoads is in the design phase of its plan.

Captain Rob Waters said plans for extra lanes along Canterbury Rd meant there would be no overflow parking for the station’s 65 members after the station’s 20 spaces were full.

“The parking will be turned into a roadway, meaning members will have to look for street parking down the road and have to walk up,” Mr Waters said.

While the first truck load of members out to an emergency would be able to park on site, other attending members would have to park further away, he said.

Montrose CFA are worried about VicRoads’ plan to alleviate traffic on Canterbury Road. Picture: Daniel Pockett

He said parking limitations would affect training, meetings and emergency call-outs.

There were also concerns about fire truck access to the busy road, he said.

Mr Waters said the CFA would need an override control on the two sets of existing traffic lights at the intersections of Canterbury and Montrose roads, and Canterbury and Mt Dandenong roads, and the set that would replace the roundabout.

He said the CFA would also require a new set of traffic lights at the fire station to make sure exiting the station was safe across seven lanes of traffic.

Mr Waters is also a local resident and believes the bottleneck will not be fixed by replacing the roundabout with traffic lights.

The Leader previously reported Montrose residents feared the plans might destroy their quaint, bushy foothills town.

Some were so worried they started Montrose Red Ribbons, a campaign in which ribbons were tied around trees to raise awareness about possible vegetation removal.

VicRoads has been contacted for comment but has previously said there would be a community information session later this year.

VicRoads said it was working on the issue of parking near CFA station and on traffic signal sequencing at the new intersection to help truck access during an emergency.

VicRoads metro south east regional director Aidan McGann said the authority had met Montrose CFA members and other key stakeholders “to get an understanding of how they use the local area”.

VicRoads previously said there would be a community information session later this year.