By ANDY WILSON

THE promise of a roundabout design at the end of Binney Street and a $350,000 compensation payment has seen Strathbogie Council Shire accept a change of plan from Inland Rail over the Frost Street underpass after some passionate debate in chambers on Tuesday, 17 June.

The new plan will now see the closure of the underpass and its replacement with a stormwater drain, resulting in the preservation of a large gum tree (The Euroa Gazette, 4 June).

Inland Rail will provide council with $100,000 worth of consultation and designing of a roundabout at the intersection of Binney and Railway Streets and pay the shire $350,000.

Council voted 4-2 on Tuesday 17 June to accept the proposal, with strong arguments given for both accepting and rejecting the offer.

Councillor Clark Holloway spoke against the motion and said removal of the throughway would cause accessibility issues in the community for ‘years to come’.

“I am perplexed that Inland Rail would choose to cut the Euroa community entirely out from deliberate engagement and present an offer directly to council," Cr Holloway said.

“(It) saves Inland Rail quite a bit of time and work and puts the onus on council for a potentially unpopular decision.

“If council declines, then it falls on council’s head that another significant tree supposedly needs to be removed.”

Cr Laura Binks said the decision was the lesser of two ‘not great’ options put before council.

“Whilst this one has been hoisted upon us without the sort of process we perhaps would have preferred, it’s going to be one of those tough decisions we are going to have to make…to get really good outcomes for our community in a not ideal set of circumstances,” Cr Binks said.

“I support my fellow councillors on their disappointment on this."

Cr Greg Carlson also said he supported the ‘least worse’ of two options and reminded members that council had no control over the Inland Rail project.

“We don’t always get what we want, and this is a particular occasion where we can’t get what we want,” Cr Carlson said.

“We do have a choice - we can either accept the resolution or not accept the resolution but if (the latter), Inland Rail will proceed with their original design and the council will incur the liability, and the tree will be gone and Inland Rail will move on.”

A spokesperson for Inland Rail said the project had worked in good faith with council for ‘many months’ and welcomed council’s decision to support the removal of the underpass from the project scope.

“Frost Street underpass is a council asset and until Inland Rail received a direction from council, it wasn’t possible to undertake formal engagement on this element of the project,” the spokesperson said.

“No concerns were raised by the community during our engagement process regarding the designs in November last year, a process initiated by the new underpass being built at the station.

“Due to the long lead time to procure the pumps and the pre-cast concrete elements for the underpass and the culvert structure, a decision on the underpass needed to be made now.”

Local businesses have said the underpass closure would have an impact on their customers.

Trotters Mitre Ten owner Ian Trotter said the lack of consultation had been upsetting, and that he had no objection to the tree being removed owing also to the risk it posed to his business’s building.

Mr Trotter said he had not received any feedback from an email he sent to council over one month ago about his concerns.

“I am a little bit disappointed in the shire that we have had no contact at all and neither have people on the other side of the railway line – no letters, no emails,” Mr Trotter said.

“Sooner or later the tree is going to drop a limb and who’s at fault then?

“Who’s going to cover the costs if someone gets killed or the shop roof comes down?”

He said there was a lot of customer traffic through the underpass.

“I have one customer who lives just over on the other side who probably will be in here three or four times a week just to get something and then he walks back.

“He’s probably not going to do that.”

Cr Holloway said there had been a sad history of engagement with the community regarding Inland Rail works.

“There has been a consistent pattern of this community being presented with foregone conclusions rather than being meaningfully consulted,” he said.

“Now unfortunately this proposal bypasses community consultation entirely.”

Inland Rail’s proposal to council included survey data of pedestrians and underpass users recorded over a week.

The report said that of the 911 users of the underpass, 365 (40 per cent) approached from the Rowe Street side and would likely use the new station underpass once constructed.

After consultation, a supplementary Saturday count was undertaken on 25 May which coincided with a local football game at Euroa Memorial Oval.

This resulted in 34 users crossing the underpass from the Frost Street side into town, with four of them travelling north to Memorial Oval and the remaining 30 travelling to Kirkland or Binney Streets.

Cr Carlson recommended the motion be accepted by council, which was seconded by Cr Binks.

“I think the people should bear in mind that there were two underpasses under the old scenario before the project commenced,” Cr Carlson said.

“And there will be two underpasses when the project is completed, except they have changed a bit, and that’s hardly unusual in a project this size.

“The Inland rail through Euroa is a once in a lifetime change so we need to get it right and not be rushed into mortgaging our community’s future.

“I want the community to know it’s not an easy decision.”