Warrnambool's Midfield Meat worker housing project concerns residents

Merrivale Community Association is finalising a written submission opposing the proposal which is being assessed by a state priority projects standing advisory committee.

The project was referred to the committee by Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny who is tasked with deciding whether to make changes to the planning scheme, which would allow 221 dwellings and amenities for key workers to be established on Eccles Street.

The committee will provide advice to the minister about whether to approve the amendment.

Community association secretary Brenda O'Connor said residents had approached the group about making a submission on behalf of a number of residents.

She said residents were concerned it was out of character with the neighbourhood and an over development of the site.

Ms O'Connor said access to the site was also an issue as well as increased traffic, lack of car parking and extra noise.

She said based on the transport impact assessment report, vehicle movement on Eccles Street would jump from about 30 per day to 474. "That's already over 1400 per cent increase," she said.

While it was anticipated workers would have low vehicle ownership, Ms O'Connor said because the huts would be cheaper to rent, workers may actually have more money to buy cars.

She also said the Eccles Street intersection was on a bend that was already dangerous when cars were parked there.

"You have an increase in traffic and it just poses more risks and more hazards for children and families," she said.

Ms O'Connor said residents were also concerned about the level of noise that might come from the site - not just for neighbouring properties but for residents of the workers' village.

"Shift workers coming home - there's communal kitchens, dining areas, doing their laundry at 4am," she said.

"The expectation that someone has done a long, physically demanding shift, to use the bathroom facility in another external location at 4am in the dead of winter, is an unreasonable expectation."

Ms O'Connor said Merrivale residents were also concerned about the impact of noise on the shift workers who would be living there with freight trains frequently passing the site.

"There's care for those who would be living there and their health and wellbeing," she said.

Part of the site was within the industrial and residential buffer zone and to approve the project, Ms O'Connor said, would set an undesirable precedent for future developments in Victoria.

The association is planning to send a copy of its submission to city councillors.

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