Charlotte Varcoe
A DISTRICT Council of Grant ratepayer is encouraging people in the area to engage with community feedback for council’s 2024/2025 Draft Annual Budget.
It comes following resident Stacy McCourt made a deputation last year to elected members, requesting for her road to be sealed.
The Gums Road resident said it was a concern for her regarding potholes and large vehicles using it regularly.
Since the deputation – where a petition for the road to be sealed was also presented – council had conducted a traffic count at both ends of the road.
Ms McCourt was surprised to find Gums Road was not listed in the draft budget to be sealed but she remained concerned as to why.
“I believe the road does meet all the requirements as it has a high volume of traffic,” Ms McCourt said.
“I want the public to go to the link on the council’s Have Your Say page and engage with it so we can work together as a community to get the roads sealed.”
She said she believed there were plenty of people who used the road regularly including large b-double trucks.
“People use it for going to work or cutting through to go to the farm and even driving trucks, farm machinery and school buses,” Ms McCourt said.
“I am sure having it sealed will benefit everybody.”
She said she was surprised to find it was not included in the current budget after she had been in discussions with council about the issue for two years.
“They previously advised me that the current volume of traffic did not justify sealing the road; however they would continue to monitor the road and consider putting it on the council’s work program in the future,” Ms McCourt said.
“That was in 2022 and since then I think the road has gotten busier so I am disappointed.”
She said she was also concerned about the condition of the road with large potholes already beginning to appear.
“We are not even in winter and there are already big potholes that you have to avoid if you do not want vehicle damage,” she said.
“If there is a b-double coming towards you as well there is not much room to get off the road either.”
Since living on the road, Ms McCourt said she had noticed milk tanks, super spreaders, liquid waste trucks as well as waste and recycling trucks constantly using the road.
“I have also noticed tourists and residents that use this road as a thoroughfare to Mount Salt Road,” she said.
“I want the community to engage in the consultation to make sure their voices are heard and I think unless you are using that road or live out there people do not know about it so they need to be aware of it.”
Ms McCourt said if the road was not to be sealed, the speed limit should be lessened with it currently sitting at 100km per hour.
Council chief executive officer Daryl Whicker said at the request of residents, Gums Road had been audited again for road condition and traffic movements.
“A traffic counter has been placed at both ends of the road for consistency, the result is the traffic count has not risen significantly since previously measured,” Mr Whicker said.
“Rural road networks comprise both sealed and unsealed roadways, with over 950km of unsealed roads and limited financial resources, our priority is to maintain sealed ‘truck routes’ to permit safe access in and out of our district.
“It is common for agricultural areas with low traffic volumes that councils maintain an unsealed network of roads and most residents along Gums Road live within one kilometre of the sealed road network.”
Mr Whicker said council undertook annual preventative maintenance of its unsealed roads and “at this point in time” Gums Road did not meet criterion required for “greater prioritisation” of road sealing.
