LOCALS packed community meetings in East Fremantle and Cottesloe this week to overwhelmingly voice opposition to the Barnett government’s Perth Freight Link plan.

“Both community events were overwhelmingly against,” Fremantle mayor Brad Pettitt, who was at the meetings, told the Herald.

Dr Pettitt notes Serpentine-Jarradale, Cockburn, Kwinana, East Fremantle, Fremantle and Cottesloe councils have now all come out strongly against the PFL, demanding the government instead get serious about constructing a new container port at Kwinana.

“There’s a real consensus it would be good for jobs and investment in the area,” he says.

The former Labor state government spent millions preparing to build the second port, a plan that was all-but signed when the Liberals swept to power. Premier Colin Barnett dumped the project and his government maintains a need for a second port is a decade away.

“It’s only key members of this government who aren’t saying this should be an infrastructure priority,” Dr Pettitt scoffs.

But Melville council is strongly on the government’s side, maintaining the PFL, which involves widening High Street and building Roe 8, will help address road congestion.

Dr Pettitt says the better solution is building the second port and putting more freight on rail. He believes long-suffering locals living along High Street would even be prepared to put up with traffic if they knew with certainty a second port was within sight.

by JENNY D’ANGER and STEPHEN POLLOCK