Elsie Lange
A new dental clinic is on the way for Sunbury.
At a meeting on Monday, June 27, council voted to approve the use and development of land at 12 Powlett Street in Sunbury for a medical centre.
“You can never have enough medical services in your town and this one in particular will provide a lot of dental health to quite a number of residents,” councillor Jack Medcraft said.
“Especially as you’re coming into Sunbury… there’s a number of estates on the eastern side and they will certainly be in need of dental health.
The centre is proposed for a 1022 square metre vacant site in the south-west corner of the intersection between Powlett and Macedon streets, with “no existing vegetation” present.
A maximum of five medical professionals are set to work onsite at any given time, and the applicant has requested no limit on operating hours so it can function as an emergency service.
However, the application received a total of 27 objections to council, including concern about the design, height, operating hours, waste disposal, light spill, tree protections, use of an unsealed road and traffic along Powlett Street.
According to a report to council, the application was assessed against “all relevant policies and provisions in the [Hume Planning] Scheme” and was given the go-ahead.
Cr Joseph Haweil said he wanted to lend his support to the report, because of disparities in provision of health services in Hume.
“I think that wherever there are reasonable development opportunities, that provide a key medical service or other allied service to our communities, we should be supporting it so long as it means the planning scheme,” Cr Haweil said.
“Because there are gross socio-economic inequalities and disparities… people don’t realise how disadvantaged the outer metropolitan suburbs are, how growth areas are very disadvantaged and take very many years to catch up.”
Cr Haweil said he’d like to see council do further advocacy work on increasing access to medical services.
Councillor Jarrod Bell proposed a hypothetical situation in which the land was instead as another housing development, and said traffic conditions “would probably be worse”.
“When we talk about seeking for ideal outcomes, this is a great outcome for the health and wellbeing of Sunbury and Jacksons Creek Ward community,” Cr Bell said.
