Council under fire

By Kath Gannaway
THE Shire of Yarra Ranges has been accused of failing its duty of care after a Yarra Glen pensioner fell and broke her hip in the town’s main street.
Eighty-two year old Gwen Smith was just a few minutes’ walk from her Point Pleasant unit when she tripped in front of Yarra Glen Newsagency on Sunday morning, 27 May.
Mrs Smith’s daughter, Meryl Smith, said her mother is recovering in hospital but faces many months of rehabilitation.
The incident has angered her family, local shopkeepers and the Chamber of Commerce who say it could, and should, have been avoided.
They point to several places on both sides of Bell Street where pavers have lifted or sunk and say the shire had not only been warned of the potential tripping hazard but that substandard repairs had simply created an alternative tripping hazard.
Meryl Smith said pavers had been removed at the spot where her mother had tripped and replaced with asphalt, which had settled leaving a lip.
She said her mother had fallen once before, at the other end of town.
“It sounds like she’s a clumsy lady and she’s not,” Ms Smith said. “It’s not just uneven ground, you have these pavers sticking up and it wouldn’t matter what age you were, anybody could trip on them.”
Yarra Glen Chamber of Commerce president Marjorie Woollands told the Mail she was not surprised to hear of the incident.
“We wrote to the shire saying it’s an accident waiting to happen and they responded with a stop-gap measure that hasn’t worked,” she said.
Chamber secretary Frank Hoogenraad told the Mail the chamber had written to the shire last January requesting the pavement outside the newsagency be repaired and was advised “the paving was down to be redone”.
He said a second letter was sent in April when concerns were raised again at a chamber meeting that there would be a serious injury because of the state of the repairs done.
Describing the condition of the footpaths as “despicable” Yarra Glen Newsagency owner Joe Perri said he had also reported the problem to the shire.
Chamber of Commerce vice-president Chris Lamacraft was scathing in his criticism of the shire.
“They have a duty of care and they have not done their job,” he said.
“They are saying they have no money to do the work but they are prepared to risk having to pay even more money for litigation.”
James Martin, the shire’s manager of community relations, confirmed the Chamber had written raising concerns about the footpath.
He said a number of sections had been patched to make them safe.
Mr Martin said it was not possible to replace all the footpaths because of the cost but that the shire would look at directing some funding in the 2007/08 budget for footpath works in Yarra Glen.