Message from the YDRA President

I was very impressed with the Open Council Meeting on 19th May. It was great to meet Nathan Cunningham, our new CEO, and Ross Whitfield, Director of Assets and Environment, whom I’d met previously at the Community Nursery. I came away with a sense that this might be a great change and that the community was finally going to be listened to. Unfortunately, it seems not.

I had a long talk with Ross Whitfield about the state of a small, unsealed section of Martin Road and its lack of grading. Grading only seems to happen following major rainfall or after repeated requests to the Council. Ross claimed that unsealed roads are graded twice a year, but they do not look like it; there seems to be no regular grading taking place. Waste disposal trucks come up Aldridge Road and make a sharp right onto Martin Road, creating potholes and corrugation as they turn from bitumen to unsealed road. Most regular users of this road turn onto the wrong side of the road to avoid these. Ross was most concerned, saying he would investigate it and take my contact details. So what has happened? Not much, unfortunately.

Apparently, a lot of work has been carried out on the high end of Martin Road, but none has been done on the lower section near Aldridge Road since the 24th of November 2022. The road was so badly washed away that it was impossible for a normal car to access my property. It was not my drive that was washed away, but the road itself. Some work was quickly done as Leon Bignell was coming to my house for a meeting, but it was just that little section of the road that was graded.

In January 2019, the Council had a survey done by Tonkin Engineering, which made various recommendations regarding Martin Road. The only follow-up to this was the installation of new signs. Then, in 2020, $40,000 was allocated towards preparatory work for sealing the road the following year. Nothing happened.

It would be nice to see elected members representing the entire Yankalilla District Council area and not just their specific areas. The mayor is selected by the elected members, but unfortunately, we still seem to have five against four, with five seeming to be more interested in the Council rather than representing the community. It will be interesting when the next Council elections are held, and the community gets to elect its own mayor, then maybe the balance will be more even.

Though complaints to the Council are answered promptly, albeit with an automated reply, claiming that the complaint will be followed-up, these follow-ups don’t seem to happen.

We have been invited to have our say and have been told that things would now be different. That the Council would be more transparent. However, it seems to me that we just have the same-old, same-old.

Caroline Weatherstone

President
Yankalilla District Residents Association
10th July 2023