Halifax industry park owners raise concerns

Crime sprees, infrastructure issues, slow internet speed and no public transport are some of the ongoing issues for Halifax business owners.

Wrek King Bunbury owner Louise Reid-Lamberti said she made the decision to live on site and had spent more than $10,000 installing security after the business was broken into several times.

She said they had also spent more than $10,000 on septic tanks because there was no deep sewerage on site.

“These issues are stunting the growth in the area and why should we have to continually pay to improve infrastructure which should already be here,” she said.

Bunbury City Glass owner Fiona Skilbeck said she could not understand why there was no public transport, street lighting or high speed internet in the area.

Mrs Skilbeck said she decided to move the business out to Halifax from Bunbury because she thought it would be more of a hub for business owners, but a number of ongoing issues have created concern for the future.

“The infrastructure is really old, we are all suffering out here and there has been no provision of future planning,” she said.

“If businesses want to employ young people it is a problem because there is no public transport in the area.” Labor candidate for Bunbury Don Punch has made it an election promise to get public transport into the area, street lights and increased security.

He said Halifax “has enormous capability” to increase investment and create more jobs.

“Every empty warehouse is easily losing two, three or four jobs,” Mr Punch said.

“The park needs to run efficiently to attract investment and we need collaboration to get to an agreed outcome.”