Iâve spent the past few weeks walking up and down the streets of Palmwoods.
Iâve spoken to business owners, employees and residents getting to know people and the issues theyâre facing.
There is no doubt the people of Palmwoods are passionate.
They all hold the area in high esteem and have settled there for a change in lifestyle to keep that small town dream alive.
But that dream is slowly becoming a nightmare, as more and more people told me theyâve become fearful.
Fearful of crossing the road, driving through major intersections, having their children walk to the bus stop and ultimately fearful that someone would soon be killed.
So far, Ms Anderson s petition has amassed 1102 signatures. And despite the good result she s hopping more residents will get on board. At the start I was shocked because I ve never done anything like that, Ms Anderson said. But afterwards I realised actually it s really dangerous, so to only get a thousand now I kind of wish there were more. I know the Palmwoods community has like 5000 (people) but I know a lot are elderly and wouldn t be willing to put their details online. Ms Anderson has lived in the Palmwoods region for four years and lives close to one of the most dangerous intersections on Jubilee Drive.
It included the troubled intersection and the Churchill and Dunning Street intersection with Palmwoods-Montville Road. Palmwoods police officer Sergeant Kevin Crowley and the town s businesses have also backed calls for safety upgrades with roundabouts, traffic lights and more parking options among their suggestions. Mr Powell said while there had been modifications to the site, there was one big issue stopping a permanent solution. There has been minor modifications around stop signs and sight lines made but we kept getting told that the full solution needed to wait until the rail duplication project came through, Mr Powell said. The reason we were told that was the rail line would be shifted and would remove it from that area where the intersection is.
Sergeant Crowley s comments came after a Palmwoods mother launched a petition to upgrade several intersections. It included Chevallum Road, Jubilee Drive, Margaret Street, and the Churchill and Dunning Street intersections onto Palmwoods-Montville Road. Jocelyn Anderson, 35, has called on local and state governments to fix the intersections before someone is killed. Palmwoods businesses have also backed calls for safety upgrades with roundabouts, traffic lights and more parking options some of the suggestions from the public. I m well aware that there s visibility issues particularly coming out of Jubilee Drive and looking left, the Palmwoods station officer-in-charge said. And there s compliance issues with the public disobeying the stop signs (in the area).