Come clean, plea

By Kath Gannaway
THE SHIRE of Yarra Ranges has again been attacked for not providing adequate maintenance for townships in the Yarra Valley.
Three weeks ago in the Mail, Healesville resident Val Owen slammed the shire for what she said was an appalling level of maintenance in Healesville with tree branches left to rot for months, weeds out of control and drains blocked, trapping litter, being just a few of her complaints.
Last week, Yarra Glen resident Ton Antheunisse took Ryrie Ward councillor Jeanette McRae on a tour of Yarra Glen after contacting the Mail with his own list of shortcomings – many of them echoing Mrs Owen’s, but others, such as cracked footpaths, being added to the list.
Rating the shire’s performance as a three “maybe four” out of 10 for maintenance around the town, Mr Antheunisse said the upkeep of the town had deteriorated.
Having formerly worked as a builder, much of it involved in maintenance, he admitted having a finely tuned eye for detail but said some of the things he was concerned about were as much about safety and maintaining the image of the town as a tourist town as they were about promoting an unreasonable level of perfection.
“Weeding is not done, paths are covered in leaves and debris – in some places a footpath which is a metre wide has about 50 or so centimetres left to walk on.
“Two or three trees in McKenzie Reserve have been broken down for four months, the sleeper fence there is wonky, all over the place, rocks that go missing are never replaced and grass is cut and just left on the footpaths,” he said.
Within a hundred metres of his home opposite McKenzie Reserve, Mr Antheunisse showed Cr McRae the massive remains of a tree which he said was cut down more than six months ago and two truck loads of dirt, now covered with weeds, which have been there for 12 months and block the walking track into the township.
“If they were there for three months, fine,” he told Cr McRae, “ … but not 12 months!”
Pointing to badly cracked, uneven concrete footpaths at the front of a new townhouse development, Mr Antheunisse said he was concerned for himself as an older person who uses a stick for support when walking and other elderly people who use the footpath.
“What if someone trips on these,” he asked? “This is preventable, but nothing is getting done,” he said.
Mr Antheunisse also called for better co-ordination of works, when they were done citing dust-proofing of the Bell Street service road as a waste of money. “They graded and dust-proofed it three or four months ago which was great but about a month ago a grader came along and graded the road again. It was a total waste of time and money,” he said.
Like Mrs Owen, Mr Antheunisse told Cr McRae he had written and emailed the shire regularly detailing the problems he had shown her but had had no reply and seen no action taken.
Cr McRae, who campaigned heavily on a platform of resident/shire communication, said there were processes in place to ensure residents complaints were responded to and addressed.
“When someone rings in it is recorded on the customer request tracking system, a number is allocated and then distributed to the most likely area of responsibility where it is prioritised.
“Obviously, some of these things have been outstanding for a while,” she said. Cr McRae assured Mr Antheunisse that she would follow up on both the maintenance and communication problems.
“It is fantastic that residents are taking some responsibility (for the appearance of their towns) but they should not have to keep following through time and time again,” she said.