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Road upgrades back on the agenda

20/3/2024

1 Comment

 
Picture
After a resounding collective NO!  to a $32 million scheme to seal, pave and drain Surf Beach and Sunderland Bay, several hundred property owners are now asking the council for road upgrades.  
 
The proposed scheme created bitter divisions in the community and cost the council over $500,000 before it was abandoned in December, with more than half the 1041 property owners rejecting it. There were just 133 submissions of support.
 
Remarkably, since then, the council has received one petition of 317 signatures, and eight separate petitions totalling 119 signatures.

The latest petitions relate to:
  • The Esplanade, Sunderland Bay (29 signatures) seeking an urban road and drainage upgrade.
  • Tolley Ave, Surf Beach (11 signatures), ditto.
  • Dunvegan Crescent, Surf Beach, seeking “a suitable, lowcost road design”.​

While the first two acknowledge that any road and drainage project will be funded through “user pays” principles in accord with council policy, the Dunvegan Crescent property owners believe they should not have to pay for improvements “given that the bulk of the road dust issues are not caused by property owners and that the bulk of the enjoyment of the road is by others”.
 
This brings the total number of petitions seeking road upgrades to eight, including the five tabled at last month’s council meeting relating to Batman Street, The Esplanade, Glen Street and Links Street (all Surf Beach) and Dover Street (Sunderland Bay).
 
While there are economies of scale in larger infrastructure projects, they are difficult to implement in the face of organised opposition.
 
Currently, communities need to demonstrate 70 per cent of property owners actively support the project before it can be considered for the Urban Upgrade Priority Program. There is a long waiting list of projects on the program.
 
In response to a question at Wednesday’s meeting, CEO Greg Box said local road upgrade schemes could relate to a single road or a number of adjoining roads.
 
The eight petitions will lie on the table with a report to be presented by the June council meeting. 

Temporary road signs asking motorists to slow will be removed in the coming weeks. 
1 Comment
Ross Bencraft
11/4/2024 10:54:17 am

The petition lodged with 317 signatures was on Change.org and therefore could be signed by anyone, anywhere in the world. When the Say No group lodged a petition with more than 600 signatures of ratepayers and locals (all collected by foot). Hypocritically, council and the proponents of the special charge scheme rejected its authenticity because of a few instances where more than one resident of an address had signed.

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