King Valley COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER
RCoW ignores residents concerns
At a public meeting on 17th December 2003, the Rural City of Wangaratta explained the repairs required to Queens Creek and Dry Creek bridges in Cheshunt. The local community was not happy with the council proposal to put a 30 tonne limit on the bridges, divert heavy traffic down the Edi Back Road and repair the bridges before the 2005 grape harvest IF they can secure some funding from VicRoads.
The community urged the council to investigate tempory bridges to cater to the 2004 grape harvest or attend to the repairs immediately and to get the tender process underway in the new year. Councillors Chambers, Wright, Grant, Parisotto and Paino were approached separately and each committed to starting the tender process in January.
Three of the five councillors reneged on this commitment. Only Kerin Chambers and Rosi Parisotto honoured their word. Neville Wright, one of our ward's councillors, actually voted against an early start to the tender process.
The January Council Meeting revealed that none of the community concerns were accommodated with the passing of a recommendation that the bridges be repaired if and when the RCoW gets State Government funding to pay for half of the repairs. There was no compromise. The original proposal stands.
Tenders will not be called for UNLESS and UNTIL the RCoW gets suitable funding from VicRoads. That could be more than eighteen months before the Cheshunt bridge tenders are called.
In the meantime, heavy vehicles are being detoured down the Edi back road and past the Edi Upper Primary School. That means that the 2004 grape harvest of the twenty vineyards beyond Cheshunt will follow this route. It also means that three 45 tonne logging trucks a day will also be diverted over a three month period.
RCoW is seeking community feedback on the Back Road detour
Well councillors, here comes the first installment.
This sign has been erected at Edi to divert heavy vehicles. Unsuspecting truckies are reading it as an 18 tonne limit and are detouring bringing many more trucks than anticipated down the Edi Back Road. On January 20, Pauline Naylor was blocked by one of these smaller trucks in Cook's Cutting and had to reverse back down the hill. This truck was followed by a furniture van which also believed he had to detour.
With the first movements of the logging trucks, a road blockage occurred on the school road when Howard Gibson, the Principal of the Edi Upper Primary School, was driving to work on January 20. The logging trucks take up most of the road and no other vehicle can get past.
On January 22, RCoW installed 80 kph speed limit signs on the Back Road south of the Cooks Cutting Road. This action is inviting road accidents as everyone knows that road is unsafe over 50 kph on a good day. There have already been 2 road fatalities when two brothers hit a truck near the entrance to the King Flats Vineyard and such signs could well lead to more.
Turn into Lake Buffalo Road and you will find an "END 80 KPH" sign ... exceed 20 kph on a wet road here and you will end up in the paddock. That sort of butt covering is unworthy of the RCoW!
Prior to Christmas, Jim Newton in the school bus was forced off the road, and into the gutter, by a truck where the road narrows on the Cheshunt end of the road.
Readers are urged to advise the council of difficulties experienced due to the detour. It is essential to make them understand that this course of action can only lead to serious motor accidents.
Next Issue ... Signage FiascoThe sign on the left is for real. It is located at the Edi end of Cooks Gap Road. The council workers have mounted a 60 KPH sign upside down. Incompetence? ... Sarcasm? ... You be the judge!
In the next issue, we will show you ALL of the anomalies (unless the council gets its act together and fixes them up first).
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