Home owners on edge after latest government project announcement

Neil Mitchell has taken a swipe at the state government for “torturing” home owners in Melbourne’s east over a “pie in the sky” plan he says won’t happen.

The government has announced it will be spending billions of dollars on a Suburban Underground Rail Loop.

The project is slated to commence in 2022.

“I still don’t believe it is going to happen, but average people are being tortured,” Neil Mitchell said on Tuesday.

“They’re being told they’ll be thrown out of their houses, compulsorily acquired for underground stations.

“I don’t believe this will happen.

“The government is trying to convince us this thing will be built, but I don’t believe it will be built.

“And it shouldn’t be built.

“If it is, it will be out of date before it opens – all our transport needs will have changed.

“I think it was thought up on the back of an envelope.

“They haven’t even done a business case, yet they’re pledging a couple of billion dollars for early works.

“This is about trying to win an election.

“I really feel for the people caught in the middle of this.”

One of those people is Joanna Swanson, who said she’d been told her home on McComas Grove, Burwood, would be acquired in “18 months to two years” time.

She spoke with Neil Mitchell on Tuesday.

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