By Corey Everitt
A Cockatoo resident has taken online to petition the State Government to secure power infrastructure in the hills after 13 February’s storm has resurfaced frustration with prolonged power outages.
Business owner Elise Turnedge created the petition on Friday 23 February on change.org, calling on the State Government to commence ‘immediate action’ to improve infrastructure and create contingency plans.
“I just think it’s time that something gets done,“ she said.
“It’s the third prolonged outage that we’ve had in 2 years, we are residents as well as business owners that are directly impacted by this.
“Most of the business here are local husband and wife family businesses that employ local people, when the power is out we have no income, our employees are not getting paid.“
Ms Turnedge runs cafe Brunch on McBride right in the centre of town, in the latest storm her business was without power for nine days, while her residence was out for just over seven days.
The cafe only reopened on Tuesday 27 February after the power seemed secure, as even after the power was back, it would go out again intermittently.
The petition calls for action in the Dandenong Ranges and the wider regional area, not just for more backup preparation and relief funding, but wider infrastructure change to address the many prolonged outages in the last few years.
“They spend billions on a new tunnel or rail upgrades, but in the last two years nothing has been done to assist us in times like this,“ she said.
“We are in Metropolitan Melbourne and we are expected to deal with this unlike others, yet we vote, pay rates, pay taxes just the same.
“Most measure will still be affected by falling tree, to me the power needs to be put underground, not for the entire metro area but for the most at risk areas.“
The petition currently stands at over 100 signatures, if you wish to see the petition go to change.org/p/ensure-continuous-supply-of-essential-services
