By Danielle Kutchel
Residents of Casey want to see less congestion on the roads.
That’s the overwhelming message received in response to a call for public consultation on the City of Casey’s Road Management Plan 2021.
According to a council officer’s report, tabled at the Tuesday 20 July council meeting, 940 responses were received from the public during a consultation period in May-June, with the “majority of the feedback relating to congestion on Casey’s main arterial roads”.
Unfortunately for residents, that’s outside the scope of the Road Management Plan.
Instead, the plan sets out the standards, policies and management systems that the City of Casey will use to maintain council roads.
It also provides the council with a policy defence against civil liability claims that might be made in the event of an accident on a council road.
The new plan was adopted at the council meeting and incorporates some small changes to the previous plan, which was approved in 2017 and due for review.
Some of the changes are purely terminology-based, such as amending VicRoads to Department of Transport.
A more substantial change was made to shared path maintenance, whereby the council has aligned the maintenance and inspection standards for designated shared paths with those of the footpath network.
Bridge classification has been split into road and pedestrian bridges, with the latter also divided into high and low priority.
Sealed road line marking now forms a single category, and certain road bridges will have their hazard inspection intervals increase to 24 weeks, bringing them into line with VicRoads’ recommendations.
In response to feedback received from the public, the report noted that “Council has responded by further increasing its advocacy with the Victorian Government for the duplication of up to eight kilometres of arterial road as well as a rail extension from Cranbourne to Clyde and increased bus services.”
In moving the motion to adopt the plan, administrator Miguel Belmar said he was satisfied that council officers had considered the submissions made by the public and had addressed their concerns.
Administrator Cameron Boardman seconded the motion and said the new plan would provide consistency across road standards for the council.
The plan would also ensure that the council’s schedule of maintenance and upgrades is transparent and clear, he said.
