Councillors approve new servo

A new service station on the corner of West Street and Peel Terrace in Busselton was approved by City of Busselton councillors in a unanimous vote at last week’s council meeting.

The service station was recognised as consistent with the City of Busselton’s Local Planning Scheme and other relevant planning framework for the area, and construction work will begin within the next four years as outlined in the application conditions.

There were 24 objections to the development presented during public consultation, with residents concerned about an increase in traffic and congestion.

However, a plan to build a roundabout at the intersection of the two streets will aim to combat this.

Busselton residents Pat Abbott and Margaret Logan are against the development and say a roundabout will not help congestion in the area. “It’s not so much just the servo, its actually where it is,” Ms Abbott said.

“We travel along West Street a lot — that area from the lights down towards Aldi is a bottleneck a lot of the time during the day as it is.

“To put another roundabout in is just crazy.”

Ms Logan said there were 11 service stations within 12km between Causeway Road and Siesta Park.

Australian proprietary company Loudi Developments submitted the application for the service station in April, with the 9119sqm site, formerly Home Timber and Hardware, identified as an ideal location for the development due to its flat surface and low density of nearby residential housing.

City of Busselton director of planning and development services Paul Needham said independent traffic consultants modelled a range of different scenarios for the treatment of the Peel Terrace and West Street intersection, and a small roundabout was identified through that process as the most appropriate treatment.

He said the development approval ensured Loudi Developments would meet the full costs of the roundabout and service station construction.