Road to ruin

By Ed Merrison
BELGRAVE Heights residents have warned the Shire of Yarra Ranges it is playing a dangerous game by neglecting to seal and widen their road.
Residents of an unmade two kilometre-long stretch of Mt Morton Road have voiced concern that someone is going to be killed before the shire acts.
As well as the danger to pedestrians and motorists on the steep, winding and slippery road, residents are complaining of health problems caused by dust in the summer and the mounting costs of repairing electrical and structural damage to cars caused by the poor road.
They said the council, which does not regard the road as dangerous, had wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on short-term solutions that have not made the road any safer.
Mt Morton Road resident Craig Wyllie said the council was playing a very dangerous game of probabilities by not being more proactive in addressing the risks.
“Most of the neighbours are just waiting for someone to get hurt. Then, of course, the council will do something because there will be lawsuits,” he said.
The shire’s current maintenance program for the road includes five regrading of the road a year, with its most recent grading in the first part of July involving 107 hours of work.
Mr Wyllie called the efforts and expenditure on short-term fixes ludicrous.
“As far as I can see their 107 hours were completely wasted and the condition of the road is worse than when they started and is still deteriorating.
“What I can’t work out from a pure business perspective is, with all the money put in over 10 years, with all the grading and everything else, wouldn’t it just be cheaper to put in a tarmac road?
“We need to look at a reasonable figure per household for making the road and to put it to people sooner rather than later to see what they want,” he said.
Resident Joy Gaze, who after 24 years on Mt Morton Road has finally had enough and is moving, said everyone in the street had suffered accidents and car damage.
“This has been ongoing for years – 20 years as far as I know. (The council has) spent so many thousands of dollars on Band-Aid jobs, it’s just crazy,” she said.
Shire community relations manager James Martin said any improvements to the road would have to come under the council’s special charge scheme, whereby landowners contribute to the total cost of the works.
“Based on estimates that the road could be constructed in 2007/2008 the cost per abutting property owner is about $14,000,” he said.
In accordance with the policy, 70 per cent of residents have to be in favour of the project, a figure the shire says was not reached in a 2003 survey.
Glenda Wise, who has lived on the road for 30 years and seen the cost of making the road go up and up, was at a loss to explain how the surveys have not turned up the requisite level of support.
“I haven’t met one person who’s against it,” she said.
“Everyone is desperate to have the road made, but it’s turned down every time for a lack of interest. I don’t understand it at all,” she said.
Ms Wise was also worried about emergency service access to the road, which is narrow in places and has crumbling edges on some of its sharper bends.
“It’s only a matter of time before we have a doozy like Ash Wednesday and somebody will get killed,” she said.
Belgrave South CFA captain Aaron Carlton said although fire trucks had no problem running on steep dirt roads, soft edges and the difficulty of passing other vehicles could be a problem.
“Any improvement to the road surface like widening or sealing would definitely benefit our response time in that area,” he said.