May 17, 2021
Filthy footpaths in the South Burnett’s CBDs may become less common if the South Burnett Regional Council decides to invest in commercial scrubbing equipment.
At last week’s standing committee meeting, Councillors were told tests had recently been run on Murgon’s CBD footpaths to evaluate two footpath cleaning solutions – a Conquest XR electric outdoor cleaning machine and a pressure spray.
The Conquest machine cleaned the footpaths in about an hour – much faster than staff could do the same job using existing equipment.
The push for a footpath-cleaning solution follows complaints from Murgon traders that the town’s new CBD footpaths are quickly becoming filthy.
At previous meetings, Councillors were told if traders wanted to clean footpaths themselves they could only use a mop, bucket and water.
This was partly to preserve the seals on the new footpaths, and partly because if chemicals were used they could wind up in the town’s wastewater system.
Cr Kathy Duff said she thought the idea of buying an automated street sweeper was a good idea.
Apart from fixing problems with Murgon’s new footpaths, she doubted Proston’s footpaths had seen a full clean since they were laid a few years ago and the same applied in Nanango.
Cr Kirstie Schumacher said she was impressed by the Conquest cleaner and would support investing in the machine.
She said she recently watched two Council staff cleaning the Glendon Street forecourt with a gurney.
While they had done an excellent job, the work had taken them an entire day to cover an area she estimated a single worker riding a Conquest machine could do in an hour.
She believed the efficiencies and productivity boost Council would obtain could easily justify the cost of buying the machine.
Mayor Otto agreed, noting that about nine months ago he had seen a team of three staff working hard to clean up footpaths in Kingaroy’s CBD.
While that team had also done an excellent job, within a month the footpaths had reverted to their previous condition and the work needed to be done again.
He said this was not only a bad outcome for residents and visitors but must be dispiriting for staff as well.
He also reminded the meeting new footpaths were part of a planned upgrade for Blackbutt.
Officers said if Councillors wanted to buy a Conquest machine, staff would need to build a business case, the same as they do for all Council’s plant and equipment purchases.
However, they thought the machine could be used on a “floating” basis around the region’s towns if it were bought.
Infrastructure General Manager Aaron Meehan said his department had considered that if Council bought a Conquest machine, footpath cleaning could be stepped up to a more frequent level, possibly weekly.
He also suggested Council would be able to undertake a full “spring clean” of all the region’s major town footpaths once a year rather than every two to three years as currently planned.
This would involve applying reseals to coloured footpaths and repairing any cracks or other defects that had appeared.
Councillors decided to revisit the issue during this year’s Budget discussions.
