It was not just an ordinary bus tour of the district.

It was a tour that included some of the elected counsellors of the Naracoorte-Lucindale Council on a bus, witnessing the various conditions of some of the roads in the district.

As fascinating as it sounds, Cr Peter Ireland described the tour as an important one, giving elected members the opportunity to be “out in the field and not just be making decisions from the council chambers”.

The June 16 tour was organised following a question with notice from Cr Abigail Goodman at the council’s May 2023 Strategic Asset & Planning Committee meeting, asking whether elected members would be interested in participating in a full-day bus tour that showcases the different roads in the district.

Cr Goodman stated the tour would include examples of:

• Roads that demonstrate the different service levels and how they are determined.
• How roads are assessed to determine if they need work or not.
• The roads that will be receiving work in the 23/24 council budget; and
• Roads that we have received complaints about.

Cr Ireland said the road types were covered in the council’s asset management plans, and the council needed to make sure they met the requirements of residential or business ratepayers.

“It was great to see most elected members present except for Craig McGuire, Tom Dennis, and Monique Crossling.

“The tour from 9am until 4pm with a half-hour lunch break at Mullinger’s covered a huge area of the council with all classifications of roads being covered and discussion between Daniel Willsmore (Director infrastructure and services) and Councillors.

“I personally asked one of the many questions, with respect to vegetation clearance over roads and what within native vegetation guidelines is possible to improve the result for our country roads.”

He said this was a question that, as said, was very hard to instigate from a monthly meeting.

“I believe there are members of the community that are not happy with particular roads and urge them to fill out a works request form online on the NLC website or drop into the council offices to do so.”

“There were many questions for the day, and I truly believe if we need to make a resolution in the council chambers about the direction of a section of road, we need to get out and look at it, something that I am more than happy to do.”

“I believe the road hierarchy needs to be looked at to confirm that it meets the requirements of residential or business rate payers.

“I personally believe the budget does need to be increased to cater for the roadworks next year. The cost of inflation on our roadwork budget has put pressure on our roadwork budget, which has been accounted for in the budget for 23/24.”

Council chief executive officer Trevor Smart said the council will be undertaking an annual review of our Asset Management Plans (including roads) commencing around August 2023 – and this will provide elected members the opportunity to assess the road hierarchy, condition ratings, service standards, and levels of expenditure across the road network.

Mr Smart said he was hopeful the tour would assist elected members with this review.

He also outlined that the council’s patrol grading program had commenced with good seasonal conditions, and a map outlining the roads already covered is shown within the June 2023 council agenda.

“The council’s budget for patrol grading for 22/23 is $865,000, with expenditures of $764,699 as of May 31, 2023, with expectations that the overall budget will be spent by the end of the financial year.

“Increases in costs have an effect on the council’s operations, as they do with all businesses.”

The council will be considering the adoption of its 23/24 Annual Budget and Business Plan on June 27.

This article appeared in the Naracoorte Community News.