Dust up over clouds

By Paul Pickering
AN UPPER Ferntree Gully woman has made an emotional plea for the Shire of Yarra Ranges to save her home from what she says are suffocating clouds of dust from her unsealed road.
Frustrated by a decade of inaction, Vikki Hosek fronted the council at last Tuesday’s meeting (11 December) to implore councillors to include the unsealed section of Ferndale Road in the shire’s Dust Suppression Program.
Ms Hosek, whose property of 21 years is on the border between the Shire of Yarra Ranges and Knox City Council, said she was bemused as to why the busy road was not treated as part of the shire’s $165,000 Dust Suppression Program in 2007-08.
She said that increased through traffic between Glenfern Road and Burwood Highway and prevailing drought conditions had made dust levels unbearable.
“We have to close all our windows and doors closed, so during the day the house gets hotter than it is outside,” Ms Hosek said last week.
While Ms Hosek acknowledged that there are a lot of unsealed roads vying for treatment, she said the amount of traffic on Ferndale Road – including access to the nearby Gilmour Park and Sherbrooke Archery Club – should dictate that it is a high priority.
Streeton Ward councillor Noel Cliff agreed, noting that the road was “a dog’s breakfast” and urged the council to resolve the issue.
Cr Cliff said that any move to seal the road would be a lengthy process.
Responding to Ms Hosek’s concerns last week, the shire’s community relations manager James Martin said that the fact that there was only four houses on the unsealed section of road counted against it when priorities were being decided.
“The council only has a finite amount of funds and has to carefully prioritise the roads that are included in the program,” he said.
But as Ms Hosek noted, there are seven roads included in the 2007-08 program with four houses or less.
While Mr Martin said that Ms Hosek had the option of paying for dust suppression at a subsidised rate under the shire’s resident-funded program, Ms Hosek suggested that the volume of traffic on Ferndale Road made it a shire issue.
“This is a council problem, they’re responsible and they’ve got a duty of care to the residents,” she said.
Ms Hosek told the council chamber at last week’s meeting that she was “at wit’s end with the lack of support from council”.
While Mr Martin said the council would conduct a traffic count along the road and install signs advising motorists to slow down, Ms Hosek was not optimistic about the effect those measures would have on the problem.