Disgrace for decades
Wheelbarrow Road is a disgrace. When is enough enough? When will common sense and good financial management prevail? When will road user safety matter? When will the environment matter? When will our hard earned rate payments stop being wasted and when will the NSW Government say enough is enough, step in and get it done or direct Shoalhaven City Council to finish the job?
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The answer is none of it matters to an untouchable local council. It has been allowed to carry on as normal, doing nothing to resolve these issues for the last decade and longer, wasting tens of thousands of our dollars on grading and applying inappropriate road base to see the tons of silt go into the local creek and into Lake Tabourie.
Recent Black Spot funding was good to get some improvements, but a dopey decision to place a section of tar in the middle of a dirt road compounds the on again off again driving conditions, still compromising our safety and doing nothing for the siltation issues bought to council's attention by NPWS, the EPA and the local member years ago.
Our safety, our children's and tourists' safety does matter and Shelley Hancock has said so more than once, in writing to council. On February 24, 2011, she wrote, “The road surface was dangerous due to ruts and potholes”. Constant complaints to council and Mrs Hancock ever since that time have not resolved the serious dangers on this busy connecting tourist road, and the NSW Government has failed us on this issue by not forcing Shoalhaven City Council to do what has been urgently needed and requested by Mrs Hancock.
Quote Mrs Hancock, “My request is that Council consider sealing the remaining section of Wheelbarrow Road as a matter of priority considering the damaging environmental effects of deferring further works until next year or possibly the year after.” That was in February 2011 and we, the locals, and every other road user have had to deal with it, but nobody has dealt with Shoalhaven City Council.
Even Shoalhaven City Council has written that Wheelbarrow Road is now approaching the point where sealing is a more cost effective option.
Our rates have increased constantly, council has tens of millions of rate payer dollars invested. It fails to answer legitimate questions from ratepayers. It does not comply with its own written standards on road maintenance by leaving very dangerous potholes and corrugations for weeks or months and they take virtually no notice of our local member.
Years of reports and photos in the Milton Ulladulla Times tell the true story of a litany of potholes, corrugations and dangers on this road. Council acts with impunity and fails the accountability test and still is allowed by NSW government to carry on as usual, destroying the environment. The Lucy King Creek system has been destroyed, a once slightly tidal creek with deep water holes and a visible fish habitat in a national park, all gone.
Council constantly puts our safety on this road at great risk. Countless log trucks and heavy vehicles, a stream of cars in complete dust out conditions on a regular basis, they know and choose to ignore and do nothing.
It’s time the government committed to fix it. There is no leadership from SCC. Where is the leadership from the NSW Government?
Enough is enough, local roads do matter, our safety matters and the environment matters.
D. Freeman, Woodburn
PM's about-face
So Vince Connelly was preselected for the Federal seat of Stirling, WA ahead of the other four hopefuls who were all women.
When questioned about this lost opportunity to have more women as candidates, PM Morrison said that "It's the Liberal Party rank and file that makes these decisions." Bit of an about face on the events that occurred in the Federal seat of Gilmore.