Residents, businesses call for design changes before start of construction on North East Link

Parks, sporting grounds and a major industrial precinct will be decimated under the $15.8 billion North East Link plan. And locals say their lives have been “thrown into turmoil”.

Footy clubs, private schools and local businesses are fighting for last-ditch changes to state’s biggest road project before Melbourne’s northeast becomes a giant construction site.

Residents, companies and community groups have delivered more than 850 submissions to a review of the environmental effects of the proposed $15.8 billion North East Link.

Construction of the toll road — connecting the M80 Ring Road with the Eastern Freeway — is due to start next year, but those affected are calling for design changes to prevent sports grounds, parks, schools and a major industrial precinct being decimated.

Local residents are united against the North East Link. Picture: Sarah Matray

The government is expected to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation, including to 80 Bulleen businesses employing 770 people which will be forced to close.

Andrew Swaby, who has run Manningham Automotive for 30 years, said relocation was “not possible” and he could not plan his future without knowing what compensation was available, as customers were already taking their cars elsewhere.

“The stress of not knowing what will happen has been enormous. Personally I had no thoughts of retirement and cannot afford to just stop working. My life has been thrown into turmoil,” he said.

Cam Giardina said Cam’s Greenaway Auto Repairs, which has been in Bulleen for 40 years, would struggle to find new customers and called for changes before his livelihood was destroyed.

Family-owned business Penguin Drycleaners, which employs more than 20 people, is also expecting to close after 73 years.

Geoff Gough and Nevin Phillips at the historic tree in Bulleen. Picture: Hamish Blair

Marcellin College and Trinity Grammar School raised concerns about the impact on their land, with Trinity pushing for compensation as it gives up 50,000 square metres for as much as five years.

Footy and soccer clubs called for alternative grounds as sporting fields are taken over by machinery, while Tennis Victoria said the Boroondara Tennis Centre needed a replacement facility up and running before its courts were closed.

DOZENS OF HOMES, BUSINESSES TO BE BULLDOZED

BULLEEN COMPANIES FACE UNCERTAIN FUTURE

The National Trust warned it would take 20 years and cost up to $80 million to replace thousands of trees. It called for the government to protect a 300-year-old River Red Gum in Bulleen that was acknowledged as the “2019 Victorian Tree of the Year”.

Lawyers will now thrash out the concerns over several weeks of hearings.

North East Link Project chief Duncan Elliot said more than 6000 people had attended community information sessions since the project was announced in 2017, and that consultation would continue.

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