Thursday, 15 August 2024

Western Victoria Region

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:59): (1045) My question for the Minister for Public and Active Transport concerns V/Line’s plan to make permanent the unpopular and unattractive mechanical boom gate installed at Ballarat’s Lydiard Street level crossing. The Heritage Victoria permit allowing the removal of the heritage gates in the historic rail precinct required an assessment and public consultation on restoring the timber gates, yet despite the gates causing no previous safety issue V/Line now claims they cannot be safely restored. As I said last sitting week, V/Line’s taxpayer-funded VCAT case against the information commissioner’s ruling – the justification they released is disgraceful. Last night Ballarat council’s planning committee unanimously objected to V/Line’s efforts to ditch the gates, questioning the safety argument and correctly stating that V/Line’s plan to display various portions of the gates in separate locations would be a confusing mess. Minister, when will you intervene to ensure the original gates are restored and the heritage precinct is protected?

Sitting suspended 1:01 pm until 2:02 pm.