RESIDENTS on the outer reaches of the shire claim they’ve been “neglected” and “ignored” by council after a regional road fell into disrepair.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Tracy and Johno Frost’s property rides the boundary of the Gwydir Shire and Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) areas, more than 40km north-east of Barraba.
The Frosts claim they’ve been in contact with council since the start of February about a broken culvert and the currently “dangerous” condition of Bundarra Road within the TRC boundaries.
“There’s a fair bit to be done,” Mr Frost said.
“There’s a busted culvert which is big enough to fit your hat in.”
They said there’s been no work on the road since concerns were raised.
“When there’s $1.8 million spent on a new skate park, that’s a bit hard to wear,” Mr Frost said.
“The city is growing, but you’ve got to have good roads to get the people in there.”
The Frosts used to reside in the former Barraba Shire, however the 2004 merger with Tamworth left them close to 140km from the civic centre.
“We’re not represented, the closest councillor is in Manilla,” he said.
Council said the culvert repair will begin next week.
The state of the road was raised on February 1, following the bushfires, however, upon inspection, Bonnay Linton Road was deemed a higher priority and maintenance crews were deployed.
Manager of road infrastructure Murray Russell said the culvert problem on Bundarra Road came to Council’s attention last week.
“A TRC Councillor received an email at 9.33am on Tuesday 13 March advising of a problem with a culvert on Bundarra Road,” he said. “A follow-up email was received by the same Councillor at 7.38pm on the same day advising that the problem still had not been fixed.”
Mr Russell said a guidepost had been installed to “highlight the problem” and a crew has been scheduled to repair the pipe this week.
“It was noted by the Supervisor that the hazard was actually off the road, and essentially in the table drain, but that the new guidepost should ensure that nobody pulls off the road at that exact location until a permanent repair can be undertaken,” Mr Russell said.
Since the bushfire emergency, all damaged signs on Bundarra Road have been replaced, with the exception of a couple of major directional signs that have to be custom made and are expected to be installed soon.