Anger at road cost ‘U-turn’

By Tania Martin
SEVERAL residents in Emerald are calling for answers from the Shire of Cardinia, saying the council has done a back flip on the cost of a road-sealing project.
John Willington, of Memorial Avenue, said the council had offered to charge residents in his street less for the road-sealing project, as the avenue is used as a through road for local traffic.
The proposed Westlands Road Group Special Charge Scheme will affect ratepayers living in Westlands Road from Memorial Avenue to Boundary Road West, Memorial Avenue, Benson Street, Russell Street, Bayview Road, Woodlands Road and Boundary West Road.
The special charge scheme is a program that provides home owners with the opportunity to contribute financially to the sealing of their road.
Mr Willington said when he first found out about the project, he approached the council about residents in Memorial Avenue paying less for the scheme as the majority of motorists used the road to bypass traffic.
He said more and more residents were cutting through Memorial Avenue rather than driving the town’s centre.
Mr Willington said he asked the council for a concession for Memorial Avenue residents as the traffic would increase significantly once the road was sealed.
He said on the promise that the council would give Memorial Avenue residents a discount, he had gained support from nearby residents for the road scheme.
But Mr Willington said residents had since received letters from the council on the cost of the scheme and discovered that the council had backed down on its promise.
“It’s like they’re saying to hell with special consideration and charged everyone the same,” he said.
The proposed scheme will affect 160 home owners and will cost an average property $7,949.
The maximum contributions for individual property owners is $12,000, and $1000 would be the maximum for the 22 units at 11 Westlands Road, which are predominantly occupied by pensioners and retirees.
The total cost of the scheme is $1.765 million, with council’s contributing $585,000 towards the scheme.
Carl Read, a resident of Memorial Avenue, said he is on a carer’s pension, as he looks after his mother who is also on a pension, and that there was no way he could afford to pay for the scheme.
Mr Read said the council has not considered pensioners when working out the costing of the scheme.
“Some pensioners have already sold their houses because of the scheme and we don’t want to have to sell,” he said.
However, shire manager of governance and communication, Doug Evans, said the initial costing for Memorial Avenue was between $2,500 and $7,630 for an average property, but that residents were told that the construction costs would not be accurately known until an engineering survey and design was carried out.
Mr Evans said the formula for distributing the costs was decided by the Westlands Special Charge Scheme committee on Friday, 2 December, 2005. He said the council will be considering all comments submitted by the residents and intends to decide in September whether the scheme and construction will proceed.