Greg Conway upset none of $150m road funding will be spent in Gruyere
More than 500 roads will be sealed across the Yarra Ranges in a $150 million funding blitz, but not a single dollar will be spent in Gruyere and neighbours aren’t happy.
Outer East
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People living in Gruyere are disappointed not a single dollar of the $150 million promised to seal Yarra Ranges roads will be spent in the town.
Greg Conway said he was surprised to find nothing allocated for the area when he went through the list of roads Yarra Ranges Council will seal with the Federal Government funding.
“I thought there must be something because Gruyere is a very big piece geographically of the Shire,” Mr Conway said.
“And I couldn’t find one project or one dollar of the $150 million over 10 years which is very disappointing.”
He said he wanted to see what criteria the council used to decide what roads to seal.
“If it’s public money you normally have a business case with criteria and benchmarks,” Mr Conway said.
“I was just very surprised they could make decisions at a council level without that being made public.
“This is a rural Shire and I expect rural dollars to go into rural maintenance.”
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Neighbour John Grant said he was stunned no roads in Gruyere were included in the program, and said the council should have sealed the rest of Spring Lane, which will be partially sealed by a developer.
Yarra Ranges Council environment and engineering director Mark Varmalis said the funding would allow the council to seal more than 180km of unsealed roads in urban areas across the Shire, with the help of landowner contributions.
Mr Varmalis said roads were selected by assessing a number of factors, including the greater number of properties and road users benefiting from the works.
He said many roads had not been included in the program due to the limited amount of funding available.