Manningham Council welcomes the announcement by the Victorian State Government to appoint Spark Consortium to construct and operate the North East Link, and looks forward to working with them to achieve best outcomes for our community.

Council has played a key advocacy role in the planning of North East Link to ensure sports and recreation improvements, improved sustainable transport options, tree revegetation plans and traffic management outcomes amongst many other opportunities and impacts. 

The recent announcement is a step in the right direction and it is pleasing to see that our voice has been heard and some of our concerns appear to have been addressed.

Council will provide further feedback to North East Link on various aspects of the project, once we have had an opportunity to review design concepts, including:

• the design of the Manningham Road interchange,
• noise wall designs along the interface of our local roads and homes, and
• the bus-way design and Park and Ride facilities’ along the corridor

Manningham Mayor Cr Andrew Conlon said he looks forward to continuing to work with the State Government on this major project in Melbourne’s north-east and advocating for our communities interests.

“Our community deserves the best and I look forward to seeing the project designs and ensuring there are benefits for our residents, with minimal impacts, as far as practicable, during construction and beyond.” Cr Conlon said.

Council was particularly pleased with the news regarding walking and cycling infrastructure along the corridor as well as additional wetlands and a cultural precinct. We also understand the 300-year old tree at the Manningham Road interchange has been saved as part of the plans, which is great news. 

We will continue to advocate for the redevelopment of the lost Bulleen industrial precinct as employment land as well as ensuring the lost open space (passive and active recreation) is mitigated and / or replaced.

In regards to Bulleen Park, we will be seeking further information on the southern portal and the Yarra Link green bridge design and hope that this will also go towards mitigating the loss of open space along the NEL corridor. In addition we will be closely monitoring noise and air quality impacts of the project.

Council will provide further feedback to North East Link and our community once we have had an opportunity to review designs early in 2022.

More information about how Council is advocating for our community on the North East Link project can be found at manningham.vic.gov.au/NEL