Narrow street raises concern

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Broadford resident Richard Frost is concerned about the width of the new sealed road in Davidson Street.

By Jackson Russell

A Broadford resident has raised his concern with a development on Davidson Street that has created a narrow road.

Richard Frost has been living on Davidson Street for more than 40 years while it was a dead-end gravel road.

Now the road has had gutters installed and is going to be sealed due to the development of land on the opposite side of Mr Frost’s house.

Mr Frost said it was now too narrow to get cars through if there were parked cars on either side.

“You’d have trouble getting through if you were on a push bike or a motorbike,” he said.

“It’s just crazy because there’s plenty of room to make it wider. Why they didn’t, nobody knows.”

While the road has been built to 6.3 metres wide, there are substantial nature strips on either side of the road.

Mr Frost said the first he heard of the development was from a letter drop two days before works started.

“It’s just ridiculous because none of us were consulted and they’ve just gone ahead and done it and made the road narrower,” he said.

“If there were cars parked there and an ambulance had to go up there, or a fire truck, there’s no way known they would get through.”

Mitchell Shire Mayor David Lowe said the planning permit was advertised in December 2018 and council stepped in to widen the road from the developer’s original plans.

“Mitchell Shire Council has engaged with the developer across this project and requested Davidson Street be widened to 6.3 metres,” he said.

“As with any significant development in our shire, the planning permit was advertised on December 18, 2018 and was open for public comment. Submissions closed on January 19, 2019,” he said.

“No submissions were received by council.”

Cr Lowe reiterated the need to drive to the conditions of any road.

“This is extremely important in subdivisions where we have a strong family presence which means cars and pedestrians will interact,” he said.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Hi my names Brenton. My partner and I bought land to build on Davidson Street back in September last year. When we bought it there was a large asphalt type road with a table drain along each side feeding into pits. It also had a beautiful view of the mountains on one side. They were two of the main reasons we decided to buy that block of land and not purchase one in the estate down the road. With my current job I sometimes need to bring large vehicles home for the night. The house we currently rent in the eastern Suburbs has a very similar size street to the one that is currently in Davidson Street- TINY. It has caused many problems with access when standard sized vehicles are parked each side of the road following the parking laws that are in place. So it was a bit of a shock to us when we started building in January to find that the road had been ripped up and within the space of several weeks replaced with a small and narrow road with guttering. Prior to this our driveway had ended at the old asphalt road but now there is over 2 metres distance between the end of our driveway and the start of the new gutter. And on the other side of the street- the power pole that used to be roughly a metre away from the side of the old road is now about 2 metres away. Our new nature strips are over 7 metres long from footpath to gutter. There is absolutely no reasonable explanation that I can think of as to why the developers would replace it with a smaller road- other than money and cost. We were aware that they were building many houses across the road but not once was it ever mentioned by anyone that the road would be ripped up and replaced with a narrower road that is going to restrict access for larger vehicles. I applaud the fact that there is now guttering versus table drains but there was no need to reduce the size of the road by well over 3 metres. New guttering could of been modified around pre-existing pits and table drains. This article was brought to my attention today by my building manager after I explained to him that a gentleman (who I had never met before) stopped as he was walking past while I was standing outside our build and asked my partner and I why we would want to live on a tiny narrow street like this. I laughed and said to him “it wasn’t this tiny when we bought it”. In a previous comment a person mentioned if the road parking rules are followed there should be more than enough room for vehicles to pass. While I can appreciate this would be true for a regular sized car, this is not accurate if a large vehicle or truck needed to get through. And incase of an emergency- if a firetruck or ambulance needed to get through I also believe this is not always going to be possible. And this is assuming people parked are actually following the road parking rules!! There is a fire and ambulance station less than 500 metres away on the opposite side of the road so it is entirely plausible to think that they would need to use the road regularly. I understand that a lot of money has been put into the road by the developers so but I do think something must be done. Council previously altered the developers original plans to make the road wider so they obviously understood how ridiculously small the roads had been made. Clearly money saving has always been the developers plan and not the better good of the residents of the area.

  2. Developers make a fortune from developments like this, so I don’t get why council, who have power, dont compel developers to do all things necessary to benefit adjoining owners. Maybe they get paid by developers.

  3. Hi Richard….Elaine from Kilmore…As Mitchell Shire grant all these permits allowing for very narrow streets this is what can happen: If residents park as per the law says on both sides of the street abide by their laws … No traffic can pass through ie emergency vehicles, buses and cars…So….people are forced onto the nature strips again due to mostly very small driveways, then Mitchell Shire comes along and fines you for parking on their land, which by the way you upkeep!! This happens in Wallan and Kilmore … I can’t Work it out! Most be all about $$$$… And no common sense!!!

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