Eve Lamb
Safety concerns have prompted Campbells Creek residents to petition the Mount Alexander Shire Council calling for the maximum speed limit to be reduced on the main road through the locality.
The petition comes as one concerned local personally contacted the Express to detail her worries following a car crash that left one car “a write off” in recent days.
Castlemaine police have since confirmed a two-vehicle collision had occurred around 3.30pm on the main road through Campbells Creek and it was understood that one of the vehicles involved had been “following too close,” police said.
“I heard the bang,” said the local resident who contacted the Express regarding her long-held concerns about safety on the main road stretch through Campbells Creek.
“It happened near Slingo Earth Moving and the car was a write off,” she said.
“The police were there. I’ve been waiting for it to happen. It gets really dangerous here from about three o’clock. There’s going to be a bad one before too long.”
Now, 144 community members have added their signatures to a petition that was tabled at last week’s council meeting, calling for the speed limit on the main road through the township of Campbells Creek to be dropped from 60 to 50 km/h –with the exception of retaining the 40 km/h school zones during school hours.
The petition also seeks to make the two adjoining school zones in Campbells Creek’s Main Road safer with clearer signage and three sets of flashing amber lights.
The petitioners are calling for one set of flashing amber lights to be installed at either end of the school zones, and also for one set to be installed between the two schools as well.
The petition also seeks to “improve the safety of the confusing and hazardous intersection of Main Road and Fryers Road at the Five Flags corner, by replacing the two small traffic islands with a large roundabout more easily accessible for those with disability aids and prams”.
Responding to a question from Cr Christine Henderson during the council meeting, the council’s director of infrastructure and development, Michael Annear, said a roundabout was just one of several possible options that would first need to be explored with the Department of Transport, naming a T-intersection alignment among other possibilities.
Councillors resolved to receive a report regarding the petition at the first meeting of council in February 2023, a timeframe that Cr Henderson successfully argued, would be realistic and necessary in order to enable any “meaningful discussion” with the Department of Transport to take place in the meantime.
