By Elsie Lange
A Macedon Ranges councillor has criticised a decision to redirect funding from previously promised upgrades to Martins Road in Nulla Vale to council’s capital works budget.
At a meeting on Wednesday, November 23, council voted to change the scope of three separate infrastructure projects in the 2022-23 budget, to deliver a $172,260 surplus to cover rapidly rising construction costs.
Instead of carrying forward the funded, yet-to-be completed works including upgrades to Mission Hill Road in Baynton, footbridge construction at Main Road East side in Romsey and a culvert upgrade at Martins Road, council will instead conduct design and investigation works.
From the $175,000 originally allocated to Martins Road works, $150,000 will be returned to council to cover the costs of other projects.
Cr Geoff Neil said he was most concerned about residents on the road and “their access and egress from the property”, especially during fire season. The dip in the road at the floodway culvert even caused a bus to become stuck there in 2021.
“In the last budget, we gave our residents an expectation that these works would be commenced. Now we’re turning around and virtually saying, they won’t be,” he said.
In a report to council, officers said the combination of cost increases and contractor availability required a critical review of all projects impacted by these factors.
Council assets and operations director Shane Walden said the projects presented with altered scope “have not been rejected”.
“The project expenditure is recommended for consideration and budget approval in the year of construction,” he said.
Cr Neil suggested that since Martins Road shares a border with Mitchell council, it could be a shared financial responsibility. He feared the investigation works would not guarantee works in the future, despite being in council budgets since 2018-19.
Cr Jennifer Anderson said she suspected that because council had committed money for the design and investigation works, it would be “unlikely that [Martins Road] doesn’t come back as a budget bid”.
Vivien Philpotts, a Martins Road resident on the Mitchell side of the Macedon Ranges-managed road, said pushing the works back could be “potentially really dangerous”.
“If there’s a fire … and we’ve had three in the last four or five years, and it’s across Feneys Lane [off Martins Road], there is no other way of getting into that area, the other end of Feneys Lane where the Country Fire Authority shed is,” she said, which was raised as a concern after the 2015 Lancefield-Cobaw fire.
