Since presenting the petition to ERH acting chief executive officer Glenn Howlett the group, led by Boyle St resident Nicole Connelly, has met with Campaspe Shire councillor Daniel Mackrell and spoken with Mayor Chrissy Weller.
The petition relates to the development of a drive-thru testing facility on the grounds of the former site of the Echuca South Primary School, which has been vacant for several years.
Due to commence testing and vaccinations at the end of January the decision to move the site from Rotary Park to the former site of the Echuca South school has raised the ire of nearby residents in Boyle, South, Cypress, Poplar and McKenzie Sts.
Cr Mackrell led a discussion of Campaspe Shire councillors at a Wednesday briefing session, having attended a meeting of residents earlier in the week.
“The petition was mentioned in our normal Wednesday briefing because I had attended a meeting of residents,” Cr Mackrell said.
“We just chatted about the petition. From our prospective it is more about local traffic management.
“The other subjects in the petition are more the domain of state government departments.”
Cr Mackrell said the council was working with ERH, when required, to ensure traffic flow was not a problem in and out of the new facility.
Meanwhile, a large portion of the residents in the area have signed on in support of the petition raised by Mrs Connelly.
She told The Riv she had not yet had a response from the hospital in regard to the petition.
“We received a document in our letter boxes on Tuesday evening, explaining the plans. I rang them the following day and asked them if that was their response,” she said.
Mrs Connelly said she wanted a “better” response than what was received.
“Of 100 affected houses, 75 of them have signed up,” Mrs Connelly said
“In saying that we collected those names in a two-hour window when we walked around.
“We could have got more, it was done on foot.
“Really, we would have gotten 100 per cent but a lot of people were not home.”
Traffic flow in and around the south school has been limited since it was shut in 2017 and the potential for a significant increase in vehicles using the streets have alarmed residents to the point of them raising the petition.
“When the school was operating it may have been a 15-minute period twice a day when the traffic increased,” Mrs Connelly said.
“And a lot of the kids that attended that school lived in the area, so many of them walked to school.
“We are talking about something a lot different this time around.”
There is an expectation for testing sites around Victoria to slow significantly once the rapid antigen tests are made more readily available to the wider community.
However, there will be an uptake in vaccination levels as parents move quickly to have their five to 11-year-old children vaccinated and people take up the booster shot offering.
Residents in Boyle St are concerned that the pedestrian access point at the end of their street will mean several people use the street to park and walk into the site.
McKenzie St will be used as the access point for the drive-thru testing site.
