VICROADS came under fire at the City of Whittlesea Council July meeting due to ongoing concerns around the safety of arterial roads and maintenance of the roads VicRoads manages.
Cr Blair Colwell raised the issue at the meeting saying that VicRoads’ maintenance and management standards of roads within the City of Whittlesea were “totally unacceptable”.
Cr Colwell’s initial motion described the inactions taken by VicRoads in relation to the required general maintenance and management of roads under its control.
“The purpose of seeking an officer report is to allow Councillors to address continued community concerns raised in relation to VicRoads inadequacy in maintaining their lawns, verges, median strips, trees, rubbish removal, graffiti removal and replacement of damaged traffic barriers, and the community perception that Council is not addressing these concerns,” Cr Colwell’s motion stated.
“I have raised these concerns because the community deserves better,” he said.
Cr David Lenberg seconded Cr Colwell’s motion adding his concerns, particularly in the area of roadside maintenance, adding that a group of residents in his ward, frustrated by litter piling up along one of the busiest stretches of road took matters into their own hands, staging a community-led roadside cleanup.
“This group collected over six metres of rubbish during the exercise and are now waiting on VicRoads to remove it,” Cr Lenberg said.
Cr Lawrie Cox added that the City of Whittlesea in the past cleared much of the roadsides as a contractor to VicRoads.
“We did the work and charged VicRoads to recover our costs. But this has now changed and VicRoads has taken over the maintenance duties and sadly they are not doing the job,” Cr Cox said.
Council will now receive a report at its August meeting detailing inactions taken by VicRoads in relation to required general maintenance and the fixing of its managed assets.
Also included will be details on the actions of Council officers in trying to resolve any inactions of VicRoads and the State Government in maintaining their assets within the Whittlesea municipality.
The information received in the August report will determine how Council will further address the issues either directly with VicRoads or the relevant Minister.