Who would support appeal?
I refer to the letter, from Jenny West, published in today's edition.
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I totally support her point of view and also hope that the owners of the 421-425 Bong Bong Street property take the matter further.
But, and this is a big but, this will cost and not an insignificant sum of money for an appeal to the Land and Environment Court.
If we, as citizens of the Southern Highlands, want to see this development go ahead do we have the courage of our convictions and offer financial support to the owners?
I have the courage: who will join me? Will you, Jenny West? My contact details are readily available.
George Lawrence
Call for road upgrade
Almost two months ago I wrote to council to inform them of the dangerous conditions of Forest Road in Wingello.
This is a dirt road that is used by hundreds of vehicles on the weekends. It is the gateway to the Wingello Forest. There are many organisations using the forest for various events. Over the past three weekends there has been a huge mountain bike weekend, last weekend an endurance horse riding event and this weekend Husky sled dog races.
All of these events attract several hundred participants and each of them drives a vehicle, with some type of trailer, on this road to reach their base camps in the forest.
Without this huge surge of traffic - I estimate a normal day - with just residents' road use there would be perhaps a maximum of 30 car trips on any one day.
About three months ago, the road became so corrugated it is now near impossible to maintain traction on the surface. My car - a sedan was damaged and something bent underneath which I had to have repaired. The road is narrow with large gum trees either side.
Most of the event-goers are not local and they drive up the middle of this road to prevent their four wheel drives from being scratched by the vegetation.
After 27 days I received a response from council informing me this road is graded every 18 months and it is due for grading in August. It is almost impossible to drive down this road in a sedan now.
As a ratepayer, I have asked what it is exactly Wingello residents get for their buck from our rates. We have no town water, no gas, no storm water, no mail delivery and no road upgrades. We do have garbage collection- but this is another fee - separate from the rest.
After sending two emails to council (and not receiving a reply until 27 days later), my son called the council and spoke with a lady who told my son that this road had not been inspected at that time.
My son asked if he could speak with someone who might know, when an inspection would be likely. He then spoke with a gentleman (unfortunately I do not have a name) the man questioned my son - as to how he knew the road had not been inspected.
My son informed him, the woman he previously spoke to from council had looked it up on the computer. The man then said - it had been inspected, then he said he would come out and inspect it and finally - that it is earmarked for grading every 18 months.
I am not a wowser, I think it is great that the forest can be used for events, where it is safe and away from dangerous traffic.
However this road is not suitable in its current state for this volume of traffic.
It is my opinion if council is not willing to repair and upgrade this road to a surface which is suitable for this purpose then the events should be stopped. The event-goers do not adhere to the speed limit and with the trailers it is churning the road up even more.
It is not fair that the weekend warriors come to Wingello, enjoy a great time in the bush and then go home without a single thought of the state our road is left in. We locals, on the other hand have to struggle every single day just getting out of our street to go about our weekly business.
I am 100 per cent sure if one of our councillors lived on this road, this would not be the case.
I invite you to take a trip down this road with me to get a first hand take on what I am claiming to be the true situation of this road. I am gobsmacked that if the man on the phone from the council actually did have a look at it, that it was not deemed unsuitable for safe usage.
When we finally did get a written response from council this is what it said:
"Thank you for your correspondence. The road has been inspected and found to have corrugations and pot holes that meet the distress level to add the road to the unscheduled maintenance grading program. There are a number of roads to be completed first before Forest Road can be done, therefore I am unable to give a start date for the works. For further information on programming of the works you will need to contact the Maintenance Engineer."
And even after this response, there is yet again another event using this road this weekend. I have major concerns for everyone's safety.
Our cars are being ruined daily. And it is incredibly dangerous and frustrating to think that this has not been deemed unsafe.
Gloria Gilroy
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