Talk stops

By Tania Martin
MOUNT Evelyn’s traders group is ‘furious’ a decision is set to be made over the controversial bus stop debate without further consultation.
But Yarra Ranges Council says there has been more than enough community input.
For the past 18 months the council has been in negotiation with the traders over the need to relocate two bus stops.
It all started because the current eastbound bus stop needed to make way for the proposed York Road and Wray Crescent intersection.
Traders have raised concerns over the loss of parking spaces to make way for the new bus stops.
The council is now set to have the final say at a meeting next Tuesday (22 June).
But the Mount Evelyn Central Business and Landlords public officer, Geoff Bailey said this was unacceptable.
He said the group had worked ‘harmoniously’ with the council to find a solution and believed they were now being abandoned.
Mr Bailey said the council should have brought the matter back to the traders before making a final decision.
But Billanook Ward councillor Tim Heenan said there had been more than a year and a half of consultation.
In April, the Mail reported the council had released 500 surveys outlining two options for the bus stops.
Option A would also see the eastbound stop located across the existing car park entry way and the westbound at the northern end of Wray Crescent, outside the Melba Support Services office.
The other solution would mean buses would stop in the traffic outside the existing car park entry and the town’s pharmacy.
Under both plans the council plans to reinstate seven parallel parking spaces outside the church.
At the time, traders’ group president Steve Deakins said the group preferred proposal A, subject to approval from nearby businesses.
But Mr Bailey believes the group had been bullied into make a choice on one of the two options.
He has also questioned why the council didn’t release the nine options it had put to the traders.
“It’s a great anger to us that they chose only two sites out of the nine and many people are confused thinking they only have two options but that’s not true,” he said.
Cr Heenan said the reason only two scenarios were released was because all the other options had been discussed with the traders to eliminate them from the equation.
Mr Bailey said the council was set to adopt option A, which meant the loss of five car parking spaces outside Melba Support Services.
He said traders would be putting together a petition this week to stop this move.