Decision-makers have been urged to take a long-term view, doing more to plan and invest in local jobs and roads, amid revelations that Sunbury has one of the least accessible job markets in Melbourne’s north.
A statewide 250-page study by urban planners SGS found jobs are increasingly located in or near the CBD, leading to a widening gulf between those able to afford inner city housing and those forced to take a long and frustrating commute from outer suburbs.
Melbourne’s worst social and economic disadvantage is also on these fringes, with higher rates of chronic disease, mental health problems, domestic violence and other crime.
Sunbury was rated as having the second-worst access to jobs within a 30-minute radius of the CBD, with only Nillumbik faring poorer.
The detailed study will be used by Infrastructure Victoria to rank the state’s most-needed major projects.
City-centric employment
Sunbury-based Hume councillor Jack Medcraft said the city-centric nature of modern employment was due to a lack of vision by successive governments in the wake of the collapse of manufacturing.
‘‘The trouble with all governments is they only plan for an election period,’’ he said. ‘‘They just don’t have the long-term vision of our forefathers.’’
Cr Medcraft said leaders should plan and invest in projects to tap into what towns like Sunbury already had to offer.
‘‘Look at tourism, all of Sunbury’s history – what Hume has got in its city isn’t really being exploited.’’
Cr Medcraft said a major Aboriginal arts and culture centre offering guided tours to tourists getting off planes at Melbourne Airport was among ideas worth exploring.
Links with China, including closer sister city arrangements, should also be pursued, he said.
‘‘What is happening within the service industry, tourism, technology and IT – they’re the things that are going to be the businesses of tomorrow,’’ he said.
‘‘It can be done. We’ve just got to be a bit smarter.’’
Better planning needed
Sunbury Business Association president Michael Osborne wants more proactive planning of employment centres, carparks and roads.
‘‘We’ve got to do more to encourage people to shop locally because that will bring more employers, leading to more local jobs,’’ he said.
‘‘With our projected growth, they’ve gotta start creating the infrastructure now, instead of always playing catch up.’’
Hume council will write to the state government, urging it to build the long- mooted Bulla bypass, after a motion moved by Cr Jack Ogilvie last week.
The state government has previously said VicRoads has plans to reserve land to link Melbourne Airport and a future outer metro ring road, including a bypass of Bulla.
But Cr Ogilvie said that after a spate of recent incidents, including at Bulla’s crash-prone bridge, the time to act was now.
‘‘It’s no good looking at it after all this growth in 10 years,’’ he said. ‘‘The Macedon Ranges is growing, too, and all that traffic comes past Sunbury.’’
The council has urged motorists to vent their frustrations in the RACV’s outer metropolitan Growing Pains survey before its March 30 deadline.
More than 23,000 vehicles use the single-lane road to and from Melbourne Airport daily, with more to come as new housing comes online around the town.
