By Dongyun Kwon
Business owners on Healesville Main Street are disappointed at Yarra Ranges Council (YRC), claiming there is much room to improve in its management of street cleaning.
The owners have suffered from the uncleaned street, especially when it’s filled with dust, fallen leaves and dirt despite their efforts to tidy it up.
The owner of Fluid Lounge Bar, Garry Christie, has tried to fix this recurring issue and contacted YRC numerous times, asking to manage the relevant contractors in the better way over the last few years.
According to the business owner’s claim, there are three main issues repeatedly happening on the Main Street of Healesville, especially from the intersection of Church Street and Maroondah Highway to his business, located next to the Healesville Post Office; a messy footpath which gets slippery, clogged drains which cause flooding during rain events and unclean litter bins.
Mr Christie used to work for the council of Healesville/Yarra Ranges for 15 years and said his expectation has never been unrealistic.
“I’m a little more informed than most and I’ve got reasonable expectations,” he said.
“It’s the inconsistency with the council on how they control the contracts that they give out for the cleaning, whether that be the bins or the footpath cleaning or the gutter kerb channel cleaning.
“It’s a recurring theme, they wait till things get so bad. This time around, I probably made three off-the-cuff phone calls to them to let them know that it was an issue, and every time, it escalates to more phone calls, emails, backwards and forth.”
Mr Christie is not the type of person who pawns his work off onto someone else as he keeps cleaning the street regularly by himself.
On 23 September, he had to clean the road 10 times because debris kept dropping off onto the street as soon as he cleaned it.
The business owner claimed the cleaning work should be done more than twice a week in certain periods of the year.
“Council will not tell me and give me details of what the contract entails, what exactly it is that they have to do, but through different conversations over the years, I’m aware that the footpath, the whole Main Street from the east end down to Terminus Hotel has to be done with the machine twice a week,” he said.
“There are three times a year, there’s the period that’s just gone, all that furry stuff comes off [the trees] and gets everywhere. When they drop all the acorns, it gets all broken down with all the weekend traffic and everything and it’s a real mess, and then there’s autumn when they lose all the leaves.
“There’s a period of time when it probably doesn’t need as much cleaning from now onwards through to summer, but three times a year, it is particularly bad where all the debris and other stuff block the drains and everything.”
One of the reasons Mr Christie is keen to see a better service for street cleaning is because it is related to safety issues.
He said there are some particular spots where it gets really slippery if they are not well managed.
“A lady carrying a little toddler in her arms had a very bad fall out the front there,” Mr Christie said.
“There was another elderly lady, who was all but recovered from hip surgery, went boom down.”
Star Mail asked other businesses on the Main Street of Healesville about what they think about the YRC’s management on this issue.
Five out of six businesses, on the specific part of the Main Street Mr Christie mentioned, are also concerned about YRC’s management on this issue for similar reasons which Mr Christie articulated.
One of the business owners said they deserve better service from the local government for the rates they pay.
“Healesville is a tourist destination,” they said.
“Better service is needed for tourists but also for local residents, especially in Autumn and Winter when leaves fall. It gets slippery.”
Mr Christie is disappointed at YRC’s management on this issue which he described as “deplorable”.
“They’re more than well aware of what the problem is and the ramifications of it. And every year, it’s the same thing and then they blame the contractors and they always try and pass the buck, make it somebody else’s [responsibility] or they’ll use an excuse,” he said.
“I provided them the information and they come back at me and [said] ‘you’re wrong’, so I provided them the video footage and the evidence and photos which proves what I’m telling them is not just hearsay.
“They’ve sent me an email saying that they’re not going to respond to this issue any further.”
New Beginnings, a gift shop located at a different spot on the Main Street, has suffered from a different issue, bird droppings.
Owner Stu Bell uses an app called Snap Send Solve to report the problems to the council.
He is satisfied with the YRC management on the issues that he deals with and said the council is doing the best they can.
“They can’t come and destroy the nest, but every morning they come and clean it,” he said.
“It’s bad on the weekend because they don’t work on weekends.
“They’re thinking of putting some speakers up there to scare the birds.”
YRC has an auditor and a reporting system, which is monitored regularly to keep track of contractors if they do their work as contracted.
YRC built environment and infrastructure acting director Alanna Ford said standard township sweeping is programmed to attend twice a week on Monday and Thursday, and the Main Street is programmed for road sweeping on Tuesday and Friday to follow the footpath sweeper.
“In terms of the footpath/road sweeping contractor they are contracted to sweep the footpaths and roads. If other maintenance works are required residents are encouraged to enter a service request so we can inspect, and action works if required. Council has a township crew that are focused on these areas and can respond to maintenance issues when required,” she said.
“Bins in Main Street Healesville are emptied five days per week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“We also implement a summer collection schedule from 1 December to the last day of February, during which bins are emptied twice daily on weekends and public holidays in Healesville Township (main shops) and Queens Park. This is subject to change, and in the past, we have implemented this schedule for Melbourne Cup Weekend and run it until Easter.
“The bins are scheduled for cleaning four times per year or as required.”
Ms Ford said the street is inspected once a week by the supervisor, and the Council’s vacuum truck will attend if required.
“Council recognises that Healesville has many deciduous trees. Maroondah Highway, Healesville, is not swept extra during Autumn with the sweeping machines as it already receives twice weekly sweepings,” she said.
“The community can lodge a request for service anytime by contacting our Customer Service team, by calling 1300 368 333, sending a message on Facebook during business hours or submitting a request on our website anytime.”
