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7 MAY, 2024
Celebrating all mums Mum’s across the west will take centre stage on Sunday. Their kids have been busy crafting homemade cards, shopping up a storm at the school Mother’s Day stall and putting the finishing touches to their breakfast in bed menus ahead of Mother’s Day. Among those eagerly anticipating the special day is Jessica McCalman, who is looking forward to having a reason to celebrate Mother’s Day this year. The first-time mum from Brookfield lost her mum 11 years ago and said Mother’s Day has been a hard time of the year for her since. But this year, Jess will mark the special day with her 10-month-old son, Theodore (Teddy). “I’m looking forward to celebrating it again,” she said. “I’m suppose I’m looking forward to spending time with my son. We are going out for dinner.” Jess said she was enjoying motherhood. “I’m loving being a mum,” she said, “It probably helps that Teddy is very happy and sleeps well.”
Jessica McCalman with son Teddy. (Damjan Janevski) 404934_10
Dreaming of road safety By Zoe Moffatt A Diggers Rest advocacy group is calling on the state government to use uncommitted infrastructure funds to widen and improve the safety of Vineyard Road, following new crash data. The DREAM advocacy group obtained data from the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) which showed there were 54 crashes from the intersection of Obeid Drive and Vineyard Road, to the intersection of Diggers Rest – Coimadai Road and Vineyard Road,
from 2018 to June, 2023. During this time, 71 people sustained injury, with 22 people sustaining serious injury, requiring acute hospital admission. The group, which started last year, said this issue is not receiving the attention it deserves, and it is only set to get worse as Melbourne’s growth continues to sprawl through the growth corridor. “DREAM group has sent multiple requests for additional safety treatments for this road to various parties, including our state member [Sunbury MP Josh Bull], over the last couple
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of years,” a statement from the group read. “Indeed the emails back from our elected state member were decidedly non-committal with regard to following up on behalf of the community about this road. “Since the sending of the email, the DREAM group has had some responses from the various parties but we remain unconvinced the state government is taking the safety risk seriously. “[We want to] arrange a meeting with the minister for transport and Mr Bull to seriously discuss fixing this issue … our goal
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as always is to have a safe and well supported community.” With the topic of money – or lack thereof – at the forefront of everyone’s mind amid state budget time, the DREAM group wants the government to tap into unused Growth Area Infrastructure Contributions (GAIC). The GAIC fund is a one-off contribution payable by landowners developing land that has been zoned for urban use and development in the Hume and Melton areas, among others. ■ Continued: Page 6.
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OPEN Monday to Saturday 9am to 5:30pm, and Sunday 10am to 5pm. Shop 1C, 415-429 High Street (cnr Station Rd.) MELTON | VIC | 3337
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