Council helps Lakes Entrance gear up for summer holidays

As Lakes Entrance gears up for an expected busy summer holiday season, East Gippsland Shire Council is continuing to deliver, in partnership with other agencies, a range of projects that will improve the central business district both in the short and long term.

Those projects include the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) funded seawall replacement, the completion of the Safer at the Junction project delivering improved amenity, connectivity and parking, and securing a site for additional parking in Carpenter Street.

Works by other agencies are complimenting Council’s projects, including a multi-million suite of road and access improvements from Regional Roads Victoria, funded by the Federal and Victorian governments. These include new pedestrian safety and access improvements to the Barkes Avenue and Mechanics Street intersections that will include pedestrian operated traffic signals, energy-efficient lights and pedestrian refuges, operation by Christmas. Barkes Avenue will also feature a raised platform intersection encouraging drivers to slow down, making it easier for pedestrians to cross.

Mayor Cr Natalie O’Connell said Lakes Entrance would benefit in the short term over the busy summer holiday season and well into the future given the importance of the investment in well-planned infrastructure improvements by a number of agencies that have had considerable community input.

Gray Street car park

The Safer at the Junction project has used $225,000 of Department of Justice and Regulation (Community Crime Prevention Unit) funding to install CCTV and lighting throughout the precinct, between Mechanics Street and Barkes Avenue, as well as in the laneway and Gray Street car park.

A recently completed feature of the project, in time for summer, is the resurfacing of the Gray Street car park, including new line marking, improved drainage, and better pedestrian connectivity.

“The original landscaping work undertaken by the Department of Justice Community Program participants has been enhanced with complementary landscaping across the remaining car park. The car park provides 111 all day car and four disabled bays and is only a couple of hundred metres from the Esplanade,” Cr O’Connell said.

Cr O’Connell said the creation of partnerships with Victoria Police, Department of Justice Community Programs, Glenara RSL and local business owners/operators has made the project a success.

“Through working together on the common goals of improving the safety, connectivity and amenity of the precinct, residents in Lakes Entrance can now safely park their vehicles in the Gray Street car park and access the range of services and shops available along the Esplanade safely.

Aims of the project include deterring crime, reducing anti-social behavior and restoring community confidence in the public safety around the Junction precinct using good design and technology.

It has built on the work undertaken in the laneway in Lakes Entrance in 2015-16, which included graffiti removal, painting the laneway, seating and planting to improve the amenity and connectivity of pedestrians from the Esplanade to the Gray Street car park. 

“A recent community vox pop in Lakes Entrance found the majority of respondents were happy with the improvements, especially the lighting and the CCTV; and agreed that CCTV was a positive component of safety in the streets. Among the comment received were ‘the improvements made to the laneway had increased safety in the laneway’,” Cr O’Connell said.

“The beauty of these works is that pedestrians can now safely walk day or night to the car park and promote a culture of parking your car and walking the streets of Lakes Entrance, which will in turn increase foot traffic for local businesses.”

Carpenter Street parking

Council has secured a parcel of vacant land in Carpenter Street to provide additional 16 car parking spaces.

Recognising the need to provide more parking spaces for the influx of summer visitors, Acting Director Operations Fiona Weigall said Council had secured land from the Lakes Entrance Fishermen’s Co-operative (LEFCOL).

“Leasing some of this land will allow the area to be formalised for car parking,” Ms Weigall said.

“LEFCOL has generously offered this land at a peppercorn rental, so that the works can be undertaken immediately. Initially the car park will be gravelled and levelled so it is usable over summer, however further improvements are planned once the summer rush is over.”

Seawall work continues

Work is well underway on the $1.36 million, 216-metre seawall replacement in the vicinity of Bank Jetty on Cunninghame Arm, with car parks expected to be open before the busy Christmas season.

Council, in partnership with (DELWP and contractor AlbCon, will push on with works over the summer period.

The DELWP-funded project is well advanced, however delays as a result of removing some of the difficult bluestone and concrete from the old seawall have pushed the project deadline out into early next year.

“Realising the importance of having this project completed, we are pushing on with the work over the summer holiday break,” Ms Weigall said.

“By continuing the work over the break, the project will be completed by late January / early February, a better outcome than and an anticipated March completion if works were to stop over January.

“Despite ongoing work, access to the beach area near Bank Jetty will be reinstated prior to Christmas, and we will also reinstate eight car parking spaces on the Esplanade near the coast guard building.”

The existing 216-metre bluestone seawall between the Lakes Entrance Coast Guard building and the existing boardwalk east of the beach is being replaced with precast concrete panels, a boardwalk, platform and ramp to the beach.

Directional signage will also be erected indicating other car parking options for visitors.

The resurfaced and line marked Gray Street car park provides more than 110 car parking spaces within easy walking distance to the Esplanade. Sixteen new car parking spaces will also be added in Carpenter Street and eight reinstated near the seawall works ahead of the busy holiday season.