By Corey Everitt
With the end of the current council term on the horizon, Ranges Ward councillor Jeff Springfield has ensured that the issue of unsealed roads will be front and centre for the next council by successfully passing a motion to review the council’s maintenance program.
At the latest Cardinia Shire Council meeting on Monday 19 August, councillors considered a notice of motion for the council to conduct a review of their unsealed roads and drainage maintenance program.
Moved by Cr Springfield, he said this matter ‘still continues’ to be one of the biggest complaints of residents.
“My focus of this is to make sure we are really aligned with how that drainage performance affects our unsealed road network,” he said.
“The operations team do a great job with the resources they have, but it is a massive task.”
Cardinia has over 800km of unsealed roads, approximately 20 percent of residents reside on an unsealed road and faults in the drainage network make up a significant part in eventual faults in the unsealed roads, Cr Springfield explained.
The motion seeks a report that informs a strategy to ‘ensure good performance’ of both unsealed road and drainage assets.
The report will provide a SWOT analysis to delineate strengths and weaknesses within areas of maintenance, the scope of the review will include private and public assets such as driveway culverts.
It will also provide a review of current resource allocation in the program and recommended future allocation to help improve performance.
“One of the things that have come up in the conversation is how often it is the drainage network, if that is not performing properly, one block in the drain somewhere can undo all the great work done on the road,” Cr Springfield said.
“If that drainage is not aligned properly and it rains the next day, all that work can be undone.
“Another one is driveway culverts of private residents which falls under their responsibility to keep them cleared and maintained, but most residents don’t realise this.
“Unless council steps in more to this space we are going to continue to see these affecting our road network.”
An issue not only affecting Cr Springfield’s ward, but the large regional areas to the east and south, councillors commended the motion and supported it unanimously.
A report of the review is to be presented to councillors within the next six months.
