SEEING Ballarat being able to sustain and support its massive growth of recent years, and its projections into the future, is why Daniel Moloney has decided to put his hand up for a second term on Ballarat Council.
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Cr Moloney has a vast array of projects he would like to see the city look at - everything from items like footpaths to large transport infrastructure such as the possibility of an extended tram line through the CBD, to the building of the third and fourth train stations in Ballarat's growth zones.
He said he would like to see a report on where the third and fourth train stations should be placed in the city. "For me, transport initiatives are important and that comes from my background, and not just from several years at V/Line, but also working on construction on big transport projects," he said.
"How we move around the city will become an increasingly important thing over the next few years.
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"We've increased our population by 19,000 in 10 years. That's led to Ballarat getting hotspots on the traffic network which we've never seen before.
"We've seen massive growth to the west. We have to grow more sustainability than in the past and keep up infrastructure.
"For example, in the mid-'90s, we could have had a light-rail connection to the CBD for $10 million. That's about a 7km trip from the tram museum to Bridge Mall.
"Today that figure is $20 million a kilometre, so $140 million. In 20 years' time from now, how important will it be for us to have that tram option and how much will it cost then?"
Cr Moloney said even smaller items such as road maintenance and footpaths needed addressing.
"It staggers me that we have suburbs that are 70 years old, and still don't have access to footpaths," he said.
"Alfredton, Wendouree, Sebastopol, it's never been more important to be able to get out walking and we still don't have that basic infrastructure."
Cr Moloney believed over the past five years council had failed to meet the community demand for sealing gravel roads.
He had advocated for upgrades like Dowling Road but it was rejected by council officers because it did not meet traffic flows.
Councillor Moloney is one of six Labor-endorsed candidates at the election.
"I've got no problems with telling Labor when I have concerns, I've done that over bus networks, train networks..." he said.
"A good relationship should be able to handle a bit of criticism. I'm not going to constantly praise or criticise any level of government.
"There's nothing wrong with disagreeing.
"There are times people have taken a disagreement personally. We need to come to the table with better-researched projects and arguments rather than just opinions.
"In every city you'll have complex views. You won't always be right.
"I think there have been times that people have not listened to alternate views.
"We need to bring it back to well-managed, well-researched projects."