By Brendan Rees
A former Casey deputy mayor says those responsible for churning up a Narre Warren walkway with deep tyre marks need to be held accountable.
Rex Flannery said he had been walking his dog along the 1.5 kilometre trail when he came across the damage at the corner of Parkhill Drive and Princes Highway on Tuesday 30 June.
“People have just got no respect, it’s irresponsible,” he said.
Mr Flannery suspected those in the wrong were contractors as they would have had access to a key to unlock and remove the single bollard from the middle of the path to carry out works.
“The only people who can do that are either council or contractors.”
Casey Council manager of city presentation David Richardson said council had determined that the damage to the nature strip was not caused by council works.
“Other agencies may have accessed the area to undertake work on their assets, but the cause is still under investigation. Council officers are following up and remedial works will be undertaken,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Flannery said it was disappointing that people feel they “can do whatever they like” and “drive away because there’s no consequences for their action”.
He said he saw workers cutting trees along the track not long ago but made no suggestion they had caused the damage.
He said when councillors were installed they could visit the scene of issues raised by members of the public and get it resolved straight away.
“I would be making them go back and fixing it up,” he said.
“Contractors get in there and they take the yellow post out and they drive into the walkway to cut trees or whatever they do and they just dig it up all up and they don’t care about the consequences.
“Since councillors haven’t been in place, people are just doing what they want to do now.
“The only people who care are the people that report it,” he said.
