From left: Warburton Chamber of Commerce representatives and Station Road business owners Norman Orr, Glenn McLaren, Chris Thomas, Bill Gibbs and Jeffery Gill are concerned about the safety of Rail Trail users entering the town via Station Road.By Dion Teasdale
WARBURTON Chamber of Commerce has raised concerns over plans by the Warburton to Lilydale Rail Trail Committee to install a new sign in the town.
Representatives from the chamber believe a new visitor information sign, to be erected at the intersection of the trail and Station Road, will jeopardise the safety of trail users.
Norman Orr, the chamber’s secretary, said members feared installing the sign at the top of Station Road would encourage trail users to cross the Warburton Highway at an unsafe place.
“It would be great to have a new sign but if it’s placed at the top of Station Road it will put people’s lives at risk,” he said.
“If people get off their bikes to read the sign, they’ll think it’s the end of the trail, and then come down Station Road, putting themselves in the line of busy traffic.”
Mr Orr said he had witnessed many trail users entering the town via Station Road and that it was only a matter of time before someone was injured or killed.
He said the chamber would prefer to see the new rail trail sign erected closer to the Waterwheel building, 200 metres further along the street.
“The Waterwheel is the end of the trail in Warburton. It’s the logical place for people to finish their trip, and once there they can use the pedestrian lights to cross the highway safely,” Mr Orr said.
However, Rail Trail Committee spokeswoman Liz Tunnecliffe said the committee was yet to finalise the site of the new sign and was keen to work with the chamber to address safety issues.
“(We) also want to reduce the number of cyclists leaving the trail for the highway at Station Road,” she said. “Like the Chamber, (we) want to encourage more cyclists to proceed on to the Waterwheel and we want to maximise the benefits of the rail trail to all traders and tourist businesses in the town.”
Ms Tunnecliffe has called on the Shire of Yarra Ranges to improve access from the top of the Waterwheel building down to the pedestrian crossing on the highway.
“At the moment there is no safe access for bikes or less able people from the Waterwheel to the pedestrian crossing,” she said.
“Hopefully some of the funding recently announced by the council will go to implementing (a) landscaping plan to maximise the crossing’s benefits.”
James Martin, the shire’s manager of community relations, said cash to improve accessibility from the Waterwheel precinct to the main street had been included in the shire’s budget, and that work was expected to start in the next 12 months.
