By Marcus Uhe
Part of Soldiers Road in Clyde North will be discontinued following a request from the Victorian School Building Authority to the City of Casey.
The request came in order for the road to be consolidated into the development of the abutting school site, with a primary school to be constructed at the corner of Thompsons Road and Soldiers Road.
A right-angled alternate road to border the school grounds and connect Soldiers Road to Thompsons Road has been proposed.
The Local Government Act 1989 states Council must undertake statutory processes in order to consider a proposal to discontinue the road.
“It (Soldiers Road) is a road that is owned by the state government,” administrator Cameron Boardman said at Tuesday 19 July’s council meeting.
“While council is responsible for road authority and have responsibility for maintaining it as an unsealed road, if the road is discontinued, as per the request from the VSBA, the land will revert to the crown and council will not have any ability to sell the land.
“The alternative proposal is that an access road will be constructed and included, abutting the current road, and that will be within the VSBA site. It will have access to the site and also create, in the future, an access point to the school.
“The recommendation to the council officers, the subsequent recommendation that we’ll be adopting tonight, we do believe that this proposal is in the best interests of the community, particularly to ensure the development of the school site in future use of the site accordingly.”
The construction of the alternative access road and the inclusion of the road (as land) within the VSBA site was considered a good community outcome by the council.
The VSBA have committed to fund all costs associated with the project, the council said.
A motion was carried by administrators to begin the statutory process.
The alternative access road is expected to be complete in October 2024.
