After 10 years of neglect and six years of wrangling, the current Naracoorte Lucindale Council has voted 7-2 in favour of fixing and reinstating a 636m portion of the 1.866km Shuards Lane.
At least five ratepayers no longer have all-weather access to their properties. Similarly, there is no all-weather access for an ambulance or veterinarian if needed, nor a truck to move or sell livestock.
Supporting those ratepayers, at the NLC September 10 Strategic Asset and Planning (SAP) meeting Cr Peter Ireland successfully called for the 636m road to be fixed and returned to the council’s road register.
He further highlighted that the formed 1866m section of road remained clearly visible on Google Earth.
After more than 40 years of maintaining it, the former council stopped grading it during 2014-2015.
Ratepayer requests confused and ignored
The built-up 636m section – which includes formed rubble, white posts and culverts – stretches across a low-lying area enabling access to properties of five ratepayers.
In 2017 a landholder representing these ratepayers lodged his first verbal complaint at the council stand of the SE Field Days. As time flicked by, verbal concerns turned to emails.
But ratepayers were left dumbfounded when the April 28, 2020 NLC agenda included a report which alleged a new 1500m road extension was being sought.
There was further confusion over claims the council’s definition of a road upgrade was different to a layman’s definition, which sought a road section being upgraded from its neglected state of dangerous potholes and long deep ruts.
A file of letters, emails and documents viewed by The [Naracoorte] News showed a new 1500m extension was never requested by the impacted ratepayers.
The 2018 to 2022 council had included and endorsed the full 1866m stretch of road within its “updated” 2019-2029 Road and Stormwater Infrastructure Management Plan.
But most within the chamber decided to downgrade, then delete property access for the landholders – seemingly without consultation.
Up to three landholders had sometimes sat in the previous council’s gallery during Shuards Lane debates, including Cr Ireland who prior to becoming a councillor attended as a concerned local farmer, but without a direct connection.
Meanwhile, each winter since 2015, the 636m section has continued to deteriorate.
Council’s director of infrastructure Daniel Willsmore was not at the SAP meeting, but provided a written report.
“In April 2020 and August 2020, council endorsed that the extension of Shuards Lane, Lochaber was not upgraded,” Mr Willsmore said in his report.
He reflected on the previous council’s notion that 40 years ago it might not have built the road and said the drainage board had no record of inserting the culverts.
The debate
Cr Ireland explained the classification of Shuards Lane on the previous council’s road hierarchy documents had changed three times since 2019, with differing road lengths.
“There is evidence of a road there that was done by previous councils,” Cr Ireland said.
“If there’s no information to the contrary, we must assume that the work that was done there was done by council.”
CEO Trevor Smart claimed the council’s outdoor staff had “no memory” of who did the work.
Cr Tom Dennis said there were “heaps of examples of private citizens upgrading extensions for access to their properties … similar to this one, which accesses a property”.
Cr Ireland highlighted that five landholders benefitted from the 636m.
“It’s not just one landholder,” he said. “In fact, there could even be more people using it – additional landholders at the end.”
Mr Smart claimed that aside from a small patch of rubble where the culvert was, the majority was “clearly an unmade road – the section we are talking about, the 636m”.
Cr Ireland explained the section was deleted from council’s hierarchy and no longer even listed as an unformed road.
Mr Smart: “It’s an unformed road, so it’s not an asset.”
‘Farmers don’t put white posts in roads’
Cr Grundy asked if it was legal for anyone to place rubble, culverts, or white posts on a road.
Mr Smart said not without a permit.
“It doesn’t happen,” he said, “but I’m sure in history it has.”
Cr Grundy queried if there was any evidence of a third-party placing material on a road “illegally”.
“What’s reasonable here is that the council probably went ahead and did that (road work),” Cr Grundy said.
Mr Smart said it was not reasonable “because you don’t know.”
Cr Grundy said: “It’s highly unlikely that a producer that’s on the end of one of these roads that doesn’t see much traffic would have put white posts in.”
It was on the hierarchy, and now it’s not!
A council road hierarchy dated May 2013 and February 2019 listed Shuards Lane as a rural access road.
A road and stormwater “updated” plan endorsed on June 25, 2019 – resolution 296-19 – included Shuards Lane as a 1866m rural access road, suitable for speeds of 50-60km/h.
Cr Abigail Goodman explained that regardless of who did the work, it was accepted as part of council’s hierarchy in 2019.
“It seems like the decision to remove it is based on a discussion now on who did the works,” she said
Cr Goodman believed that when it was part of the hierarchy, that to remove it now was unfair to the community and those landholders who made business and investment decisions around what facilities and infrastructure were available to them.
She was concerned that “we did accept that it was our road, and subsequently have decided that it’s not”.
Mr Smart said a lot of work was done in 2019 to classify roads as historically “they were all just listed”, regardless of whether they were formed.
“If they are not formed, there is no asset to actually list,” he said.
Cr Rayner said with five people using the road, “you would think council put it there in the first place”.
Cr Dennis said he sensed a few councillors felt there was some sort of conspiracy that the council was trying to downgrade people’s roads. But he said there was a finite amount of money to service roads.
He said low traffic roads “are in the bottom of the hierarchy”.
“Hence, our financial ability to fund those roads is less,” he said.
Cr Goodman said the point was that the 636m section “doesn’t even exist on the hierarchy anymore”, when previously it did.
Mr Smart said the council had about 600km of unformed roads.
“We don’t list all them on our AMPs (Asset Management Plans) because they’re not assets,” he said.
“We don’t actually have to maintain that road because it’s unmade, it’s unformed. That’s the basis of it.”
‘Where is the reasonableness?’
Mayor Patrick Ross questioned what reasonable access was for the five affected landholders and what it meant for those ratepayers.
“It may be impassable with all but a tractor – and I do know last year people were going down there with a tractor and trailers … so they could look after their livestock at the end of the lane,” Mr Ross said.
“I don’t know where reasonableness comes into the discussion.”
Cr Peter Ireland highlighted Google Earth images showing Shuards Lane was once gravelled the full length: 1866m from Lochaber Road to the Harvey West Road.
Cr Tom Dennis alleged there was no evidence of council ever maintaining the road.
Cr Ireland explained the council had failed to maintain it for the past 10-15 years, but had prior to that.
Cr Grundy highlighted a motion of the previous council was to maintain the 636m section in some way.
He suggested getting the 636m back on the hierarchy to formalise what the service levels might be.
How they voted
At the SAP meeting, Cr Ireland’s motion was seconded by Cr Grundy and they voted in favour, along with Mayor Patrick Ross, and Crs Goodman and Rayner.
Cr Tom Dennis voted against.
Cr Damien Ross chaired the meeting and did not vote, resulting in a 5-1 vote in support of fixing the road and reinstating it.
Crs Monique Crossling, Craig McGuire, Darren Turner and Crash Downward were absent.
The motion was then considered for endorsement at council’s full meeting on September 24.
Crs Craig McGuire and Monique Crossling both spoke against the motion, and voted against it. Cr Tom Dennis was absent.
Crs Crash Downward, Darren Turner, Trevor Rayner, Abigail Goodman, Damien Ross, Peter Ireland and Cameron Grundy voted in favour and it passed 7-2.
This article appeared in the Naracoorte News.
