July 17, 2019
Confusion over the difference between State and Council-owned roads is causing South Burnett Regional Council to get blamed for some road maintenance issues that are out of its control.
At Wednesday’s monthly Council meeting, Roads portfolio chair Cr Gavin Jones said some residents still didn’t know the difference between Council roads and State roads, such as highways and certain major trunk routes.
“We get a considerable number of customer requests coming in, and unfortunately they are about State roads,” Cr Jones told the meeting.
“We have to lobby the State to get the money to fix them.
“They ring Council and complain about them and it is our responsibility – I am not denying that – but it’s a fact that we have to lobby to State Government (to get the money).”
Council officers confirmed Council road crews were paid to carry out some routine maintenance tasks on State roads by the Department of Transport and Main Roads.
However, the budget they were allocated was small and they had to request extra funds for anything that fell outside it.
Mayor Keith Campbell praised the Council’s road teams for their work in helping meet this year’s road maintenance goals.
“It has been a journey for us as a Council to truly understand the situation with our region’s roads and truly understand what amount of money we needed to apply to the road network,” he said.
Cr Jones said he remained confident Council would meet its promise that every unsealed road in the region would receive some attention by Christmas.
“We are well on the way to achieving the promise we made on our listening tours that every dirt road will be graded or have some sort of surface put on it before December this year,” Cr Jones said.
Cr Jones said by the end of July:
- Gravel resheeting will be carried out on Mitchells, Althouse, Deep Creek, Dip, and part of Boonenne-Ellesmere roads
- Gravel resheeting and heavy formation grades will be done on Redvale, McKenzies and part of Basin roads
- Shoulder resheeting and a formation grade will be carried out on Kearneys Road
- A heavy formation grade will be completed on the Memerambi-Gordonbrook road
- Slashing will be carried out along 36 roads at Byee, Cloyna, Hivesville, Moondooner, Murgon, Merlwood, Redgate, Silverleaf, South Nanango, Sunny Nook, Tablelands, the Murgon-Gayndah Road and Byee Road
- Selected existing linemarking in Murgon, Kingaroy and Nanango will be renewed
Patrol grades will also be carried out on 128 roads in 24 localities across the region before the end of September, Cr Jones said.
We could remove the confusion if we reduced the number of levels of government.
While we all play the blame game the money is fritted away and the roads get worse.
I agree. One of the key arguments used to force Council mergers was that fewer, bigger councils would be financially stronger and we’d all see a better bang for our buck.
Exactly the same reasoning could be applied to State Governments, too. Why not merge them together and have just one big national government to run the country at the top level and local governments to run things close to the ground?
Oh, wait a minute … we already have a Federal Government, don’t we? So why do we still have State Governments?
Unfortunate reality of years gone by to now. Council and/or State and/or Federal Governments working together is needed as opposed to party antics seeing many fundings either not forthcoming or merely not being requested, lobbied.
Changes need to occur before changes can be seen, delivered, achieved. It’s on all of us to make the needed changes instead of expecting and or believing the status quo of the same-old-same will result in changes. State Roads has a dedicated point of call in regards to roads complaints. State vs Federal vs Council roads is also available online if searched for, folks.