Charlotte Varcoe
TARPEENA residents are pushing for the 80km speed limit to be reinstated to 60km as the main road becomes busier and busier.
The Tarpeena Progress and Recreation Association will work alongside the District Council of Grant to advocate for the change in speed limits close to the Timberlink Mill.
The association will also work with council to advocate for electronic fire danger signs to be installed in the town.
It comes following elected member Karen Turnbull putting forward two motions with notice requesting council write to the relevant minister requesting the signage and speed limit changes.
Council agreed to write to Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Tom Koutsantonis to request the speed limit change and to Minister for Emergency Services Joe Szakacs for the electronic sign.
Chairperson of the association Lynton Cram said the request for the speed limit change was on the basis the road could be considered unsafe.
“This is one of the busiest roads in the South East and increasing the speed limit when they did was a strange thing to us,” Mr Cram said.
“We have been a bit fortunate that nothing has happened and what worries us is if it was brought back to 60km people would probably do 70km which is still not good but once you get up to 80km that is where it starts getting dangerous.”
Mr Cram said residents were also now concerned about road safety with the recent Timberlink mill expansion despite the new turning lanes.
“The amount of traffic is getting busier and busier so it seems strange in a town where it is busy and not 60km,” he said.
“We are happy council is eager to advocate for us and Cr Turnbull is pretty proactive and indicated she will fight for us as well.”
Mr Cram said having the electronic fire danger sign would also bring a benefit to the town with many residents living through the devastation of Ash Wednesday.
“It is very important to us and what we cannot understand is when it was taken down there was a lot of toing and froing about who was responsible,” he said.
“I think the firefighters do a fantastic job but everything is electronic these days and the older residents might not know how to access the fire danger warnings online.
“Even the young ones, if they are driving through Tarpeena and they want to know what the fire danger is going to be they can quickly check without looking on their phone,”
Mr Cram said he thought it was “really important” the new fire danger sign be implemented within the town and was happy council was going to continue advocating for it as well.
“People might not look for the fire danger sign but they will see it and they are reminded,” he said.
“People need to be alerted and that is the easiest way and that is when people become more careful about what they do.”
Mr Cram said moving forward the association – which recently combined with the Tarpeena Football Club – would focus on projects to improve the town such as shared bike paths.
“We find council is very good to work with and we look forward to the next meeting,” he said.
