Calls to protect town’s village atmosphere

Fifteen Yarragon residents sent a strong message to Baw Baw Shire councillors last week – they did not want their village atmosphere lost to a multi-national service centre development.

Residents were united in their opposition towards a planning proposal to establish a 24 hour, seven day a week service station with fast food restaurants and a convenience store.

And their objections largely focussed on the need to maintain the village, tourist town feel of Yarragon that businesses had worked so hard to create.

Cate Bearsley-Smith said the proposed development would be a “cancer on our town.”

She said residents did not want the 24 hour, seven days a week noise and light pollution of a major service station.

Ms Beasley-Smith said her children, aged 10 and seven, had never been to a fast food outlet and she did not want to be driving past one every day.

Trafalgar business owner Brendan Kingwill said his fast food business had significantly declined since the opening of the freeway service centres at Longwarry.

He said staff numbers dropped from 18 to 10, and donations to local organisations charities halved from $20,000 to $10,000 a year.

He said sales decreased 20 per cent after the Sand Rd stations opened and the proposed development would have a similar impact on Yarragon

Long time resident and former shire councillor Murray Cook said Yarragon had always been a proud and supportive community.

He said when the freeway duplication occurred through Yarragon the two town pushed for a service road.

“As business grew and more motorists stopped, this town grew into a tourist town in its own right. Yarragon just didn’t happen, it was made to happen by an involved community.

“However, it wouldn’t take much to change the Yarragon ambience and make it just another rural town. Takeaway food on the edge of Yarragon would be the start of the demise of Yarragon,” he said.

Jenni Burchell-Robins described the developers had sugar coated the application.

She said it was not just a service station, it included two fast food outlets and a convenience store larger than the Yarragon supermarket.

“If this goes ahead, there is no turning back. This facility doesn’t represent progress for Yarragon, in fact it stands for everything that Yarragon isn’t,” she said.

Resident and business owner Margaret Oliver said the proposal did not fit with the “model” that works in Yarragon.

“If you put in a large monopoly like this it will detract from the whole village feel,” she said.

Renee Kemp, another business owner, said Yarragon was a small town that had actively thrived.

“This vibrant community didn’t happen overnight or by chance,” she said.

Ms Kemp said the service station was at odds with the future strategic direction of the site.

Lee Richards said existing small businesses could not match the deep marketing pockets of large chains.

“Our view is this won’t add to or enhance the experience for people shopping in Yarragon, it will actually become a bypass and local businesses will miss out,” she said.

Inge Mitchell said she was concerned about the impact on the amenity of the town, which had taken 40 years to create. “It was created by local families risking their money to open a business,” she said.

Yarragon and District Community Association president Judith Conway focussed her objection on traffic management at the site. She said putting a slow down zone for a freeway service centre at the same place as the 110 speed up zone was a “recipe for disaster.”

Yarragon based doctor Malcolm McKelvie raised concerns about health issues and the already growing obesity problem in Australia.