Member for Canning Andrew Hastie has admitted it was ‘unrealistic’ to get the Coalition Government to commit funding for a solution to congestion around Kelmscott’s Denny Avenue level crossing in the six months he represented the area.
During the Canning by-election election material distributed by Mr Hastie’s campaign said he would fix issues on Denny Avenue.
He even managed to bring state Transport Minister Dean Nalder to the road in August last year – a feat the previous member Don Randall and state Labor member Tony Buti were unable to achieve.
He said after being elected he kept in contact with Mr Nalder but a number of factors came into play preventing any commitment and people had to be realistic given the timeframe.
“I remained in contact with the state minister Dean Nalder and did what I could but ultimately it’s a state issue and the Federal Government, after its commitment to Armadale Road, it was difficult to get any more funding.
“People have been talking about this for years, in a space of six months it’s unrealistic to get a $70 million plus commitment and I said that I would advocate and I did,” he said.
“Again, people have to be realistic.
“Especially with the change in leadership, the change in ministers and of course I was pretty much looking after two electorates at the one time.
“Of course, whoever wins the seat of Burt will be advocating for it and I’ll be supporting them in which ever way I can, I think it’s a good project.”
During his visit to the intersection Mr Nalder said Main Roads and the Public Transport Authority were looking at ‘innovative’ solutions but these have never been revealed.
Questions to Main Roads revealed the only work done on the road was timing changes to traffic lights.
Further questions to Mr Nalder about what investigations MRWA and the Public Transport Authority were doing revealed they still had no solution in the pipeline.
“Main Roads continues to investigate ways of resolving traffic issues in Kelmscott, unfortunately there is no quick-fix and I am confident Main Roads will identify options and work with the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority to progress traffic improvements in the area,” he said.
“The PTA and Main Roads continue to closely monitor technology advances in Australia and overseas to see what improvements can be applied locally.”
