Concern over Belmont road closure

A planning stoush is emerging in the City of Belmont over the proposed closure of Brearley Avenue, with residents, landowners and businesses lobbying the council to reconsider its plans.

Main Roads Western Australia has proposed to close Brearley Avenue by year’s end as it believes the road, formerly the main entrance to Perth Airport, is no longer required.

Main Roads also considers the intersection of Brearley Avenue and Great Eastern Highway to be an accident hotspot, while it also contributes to congestion along Great Eastern Highway and the Tonkin Highway off-ramp.

The closure of the road is part of the City of Belmont’s strategy to facilitate higher density residential development in an area of the city known as ‘development area 6’.

But the plan to close the street has caused consternation among local residents and businesses, especially Seasons Funerals, which operates its head office, mortuary and a funeral parlour at the corner of Brearley Avenue and Great Eastern Highway.

Seasons Funerals managing director Steve Erceg said if Brearley Avenue was shut, the business would substantially lose its ability to trade, with mourners and funeral processions having to travel through suburban streets, past two schools, to access the property.

“It’s not just that we’re a local business, we are business that’s providing for all of Perth, people come from everywhere,” Mr Erceg said.

“They’ll just get pissed off, coming here they won’t know how to get here and that’s disastrous.

“What if people get lost and they are late for a funeral?”

Landowner Diane Mossenson shared Mr Erceg’s concerns about the potential road closure, and has been busy rallying other residents and ratepayers on the issue.

Ms Mossenson said she had delivered a petition containing more than 150 signatures to council last week, calling for a special general meeting to re-evaluate the issue.

Of particular concern to Ms Mossenson is the research done to evaluate the impact of the road closure on local traffic.

“DA6 is anticipated to have between 6,000 and 8,000 people by the time it’s finished in 2020 or 2030, but the traffic modelling has been done with a population of 2,000 people, so they’ve totally underestimated what the population will be,” Ms Mossenson said.

“If in fact the roads are shown to be congested as a result of all this traffic, the council will need look at what they need to do to fix the problem.”