Concerns of Pearcedale

22/8/06

I would love to join any group that seeks to make local government more accountable and more responsive to the needs of it’s ratepayers. I live in the City of Casey – a hybrid municipality supposed to service both it’s urban and rural customers.

Quote – from the City of Casey,” We see ourselves as a mainly urban council and we can’t afford to maintain ALL THOSE RURAL ROADS and we don’t have to.” My current issue , apart from rates , is the council won’t maintain the road at all, that leads to the frontage of my property. They have a policy whereby they pick and choose which roads they want to maintain. If you are the last ratepayers in a no through road or dead end road then they don’t have to grade the road all the way to the last landholder. They call the last part of the road “ Your driveway “ even though your land doesn’t adjoin most of it’s length. Incidently the road they won’t maintain is their road, they own it. When we purchased our property we were told it was a public road , that has all changed since the State Government enacted the Road Management Act 2004 , which gives councils the power to pick and choose which roads they maintain. Used to be, the core service that a council provided in exchange for rates – was, Roads and rubbish. Now it is just rubbish.

Pearcedale

RATEPAYERS VICTORIA, Inc. A0040924M - PO BOX 1057 Huntingdale, Victoria 3166