Perth Voice Interactive

A NEW pedestrian crossing planned for outside Beatty Park will help residents walk between the north and south of Vincent.

When he was Vincent mayor, now-Perth MP John Carey was contacted by lots of parents living south of Vincent Street, who felt unsafe crossing the street to get to the pool and park.

They said the median strip there was so small you couldn’t even squeeze on a pram, cyclists had to stand with their bikes side-on and some people were forced to pick up their dogs to cross the road.

Mr Carey made an election commitment to install a crossing, and after some prodding it’s going ahead with $200,000 funding from the state government.

Main Roads says that because of traffic flow and pedestrian safety the crossing will be located near the Florence Street entrance, rather than closer to the Beatty Park centre.

Mr Carey says that southern chunk of Vincent, the “Cleaver Precinct”, is cut off by the pedestrian-unfriendly Charles Street, and the new crossing will help connect both halves of the city.

“It has been an area that has been cut off, so it’s really important that we make Cleaver precinct accessible and walkable. The more you can walk in a neighbourhood the healthier and more connected it is.”

Vincent mayor Emma Cole welcomed the new crossing.

“We are an inner city community divided by main roads,” she says, and crossings are needed to reunite them.

She also mentioned that Main Roads had been easier to deal with in recent years, helping to get projects off the ground.

by DAVID BELL