OGRADYS Road and its speed limit were brought up at last week’s Mitchell Shire Council meeting, where a vast majority of councillors voted in favour of lowering the speed limit.
Officially speaking, the speed limit of the road will remain the same, but Council did vote to write a letter to the Department of Transport requesting the whole road be reduced to 80km/h.
A petition was handed to Council with 177 signatures in support of lowering the speed limit, due to the enormous number of wildlife collisions which happen along the stretch of road.
There have been eight serious incidents on the road since 2018, plus countless wildlife deaths, which typically aren’t recorded statistically.
Councillor Bob Humm was a major mover for the topic in Council, saying people need to slow down.
“It has become a formal black spot location. Being a black spot, there’s a chance for funding to do further works to make that road a lot safer again,” he said.
“I support this notice of motion 100 per cent.”
Cr Timothy Hanson was in support of the motion, but wasn’t fully convinced about lowering the speed limit across the whole road, instead wanting the evidence to determine what the result of the road change should be.
“My support tonight shouldn’t be taken as me having already reached a conclusion that 80km/h is necessarily the right answer for every section of Ogradys Road,” he said.
Cr Jeffrey wasn’t in support of the motion, due to his prior belief that lowering speed limits is not the first step for every road fix.
“It would be inconsistent for me to turn around and support a lowering of speed limits given that I have publicly stated that it’s never the first course of action for me.”
