Residents in battle to defeat ‘freight hub’ plan

JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
LARA and Little River residents face a battle to defeat plans for an intermodal freight hub on their doorstep, a community action group says.
Lara Little River Rural Action Group president Patrick O’Halloran said the group would investigate how to have the freight hub removed from Lara’s structure plan.
“We’ve won a battle but not the war as yet,” Mr O’Halloran said.
His group was encouraged that Planning Minister Matthew Guy had placed a hold on the project, he said.
A spokesperson for Mr Guy said facilitating the development would be “premature in view of the State Government’s proposed Avalon Airport rail link”.
A spokesperson for developer Buildev, Mark Regent, said the company had followed all planning processes “and spent about $500,000 on it”.
Mr Regent was “surprised” at an Avalon Airport bid to accommodate the hub.
“It’s a bit disingenuous on the part of Avalon that after three years planning they want to jump on back of it and get a free ride.”
Mr Regent said “various parties” appeared to have forgotten that any rail link to Avalon would have to go through Buildev land.