RESIDENTS of Gloaming Ride and Thrice Lane have vowed to fight on following a decision at last week's Melton Council meeting to join the two streets as a single thoroughfare.
Resident Grace Withington said all options would be considered once the dust had settled. Legal action against the council is believed to be one such option.
"We definitely aren't just going to take it," she said. "If there's another avenue, we'll take it."
Tempers reached boiling point and two members of a packed gallery were ejected during a fiery council meeting last week when a decision was made to join Gloaming Ride and Thrice Lane after duplication of Centenary Avenue is completed.
The two streets are separated by locked gates and a small nature strip, but a petition put to Melton Council in March called for the two streets to be joined as a thoroughfare.
About 65 per cent of the 456 written submissions to the council favoured the move and a further 20 verbal submission were heard; the majority of those opposed the move.
A council committee recommended the streets be joined after the duplication of Centenary Avenue. But an officer's report recommended the streets remain closed as the cost of works would outweigh potential benefits, and emergency services had not raised concerns about need for another means of access into Kurunjang.
Cr Sophie Ramsey presented an alternative motion, to keep the streets closed, to which the gallery responded with sustained applause.
Cr Ramsey said the estimated $1.5 million cost to connect the streets could be better spent on other areas of Melton Shire.
She sought clarification on timelines and was advised by officers that the duplication of Centenary Avenue would not be completed before 2012.
Cr Broden Borg opposed her motion but was howled down when he stood to speak, prompting Cr Justin Mammarella to call on the mayor to restore order to the chamber and eject people who disrupted the meeting.
Two people were later asked to leave the gallery.
Cr Ramsey's motion was defeated 4-2 and Cr Borg again pushed the recommendation for the council to open the streets. He also called for the 900 residents in the area to be sent letters notifying them of the decision.
His motion was carried 4 to 2.
But Cr Mammarella did not see it as a move to join the streets: "I don't see a decision tonight for Thrice Lane to be opened. We're saying, let's look at this because serious concerns have been recognised about traffic congestion and safety."
Mrs Withington, who last week called the whole process a "sham", said the prospect that the streets could be joined would devalue properties.
Thrice Lane resident Bernie Harford said the land was sold with the promise the streets would never be joined and it was "extraordinarily arrogant" for councillors to go against council officers' sound reasoning.
Cr Bob Turner excused himself from the debate because he has relatives living in Kurunjang.
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