With the receipt of the letter from Michael O'Brien this week it is finally clear that VicRoads do not care about the residents they have affected with their incompetence and are totally ignoring us. Likewise for Michael O'Brien, who while he is supposed to represent the local residents and act on our behalf, is seems he is only a mouthpiece for VicRoads and puts them ahead of the residents. Perhaps he is trying to cover mistakes made.Therefore, I intend to bring this matter to the attention of the press and hope that the following questions can be answered along with lessening of the noise from the freeway.

Questions for VicRoads:

1. Why was so much money spent on the useless noise barriers and now they are refusing to listen to the residents who tell them the situation is worse?
2. Why was foliage removed and not replaced?
3. Why did they not ask for feedback from the residents?
4. Why have they dismissed or ignored resident feedback when given?
5. Why did they allow shoddy workmanship on the upgraded barriers? For example, existing barriers left dismantled overnight which increased noise and allowed pets to wander onto the freeway. Also, at the end of the work large gaps remained at the bottom of the barriers and in the actual barriers.
6. Why have the test results not been published as promised on the letter of 21st December?
7. How can their testing be relied upon when one lady in Thornbury Cres was told that unfortunately no before testing was done?
8. Why was testing not done during the most noisy periods?
9. Why has Garry Liddle not bothered to respond to the residents concerns? 
10. Why, in the letter received on the 5th of December, did they  imply that the local residents were to be treated as 2nd class citizens and used as guinea pigs for VicRoads testing?
11. Most importantly of all, why are they saying that the noise levels have improved and they are ignoring the residents who say that no improvement has been made and the situation has got worse?

Questions for Michael O'Brien:

1. Why has he not responded to the concerns I raised in emails to him on the 6th of February and 3rd of March?
2. Did he raise these concerns with VicRoads?
3. Why did he include in his letter of 22nd March the phrase "trust that the work of VicRoads has helped achieve a satisfactory outcome for your neighbourhood"? This is plainly insulting to us who are totally dissatisfied and suggests he does not appreciate our situation and is ignoring our concerns.

Finally received the following letter from Michael O'Brien. It is not what I expected, in fact it is totally disappointing and the last sentence is if nothing but downright insulting. How could VicRoads have helped to achieve a satisfactory outcome when they have caused the problem with their inept upgrade in the first place and have done nothing to help!

This letter just takes the side of VicRoads and does not address the concerns of the residents.

Where are the results of the noise testing? Why have they not been sent to us as promised in the letter of 21st December?

He also attached the following letter from Terry Mulder the minister responsible. More weasel words!

Have received no response from Michael O'Brien to my email sent to him on 3rd March. I can only conclude that he is not interested in helping us.

Because nothing has been heard from VicRoads and their lack of positive feedback I sent the following email to Michael O'Brien

Dear Michael,

During the past few days, I and other residents have noticed that for some reason the noise from the freeway has become much worse.  The noise now is almost intolerable.  When I contacted David Smith of VicRoads about this he dismissed it immediately and told me I was imagining it.  This is not the attitude I would expect.

As a result of this, and past experiences, we have totally lost confidence in VicRoads and find it difficult to believe anything they have to say. Additional reasons for this are
1.     Lack of acknowledgement of our complaints except for one insulting letter from Bruce Gidley
2.     Lack of asking for any feedback from residents
3.     Dismissal of resident feedback when given
4.     Lack of feedback about noise testing as promised
5.     Shoddy workmanship during the entire project
6.     Removal of vegetation
7.     Promise of before and after noise testing when it was acknowledged by VicRoads to one resident that no before testing was done, and
8.     Lack of noise testing during most noisy periods.

Based on their past history, any findings put forward now by VicRoads will have lost any credibility.  We know the negative impact it is having on our lives and we want it rectified.

Thank you for you assistance.

Yours sincerely

Chris Babarczy