By Callum Ludwig
Roads and roadsides remain a concern in Seville East, with the state of the footpaths recently called into question.
Seville East resident Joel Supple has been a long-time advocate for improvements and submitted a question for the Tuesday 13 August Yarra Ranges Council meeting regarding previous funding promised for upgrades in the township.
Director of Built Environment and Infrastructure at Yarra Ranges Council Hjalmar Phillip responded to the question and said the funding was cut as a result of the loss of Roads for Community funding.
“Council understands the concerns you’re raising, but unfortunately, in January 2023, Council received notification that this funding would be cut to 47.7 million, which removed over 100 million in funding for local roads, drainage and footpaths, including several roads in Seville East,” he said.
“Following the federal funding cuts, Council has recently completed an assessment into the missing footpath links across the municipality, the assessment considered criteria such as safety, proximity to public transport, schools, shops, delivery efficiencies, as well as adjacent projects and external funding opportunities,”
“The missing links along Warburton Highway, Stuart Road, Peters Road, Joyce Road and Bridgewater Road have been identified through these assessments and will be considered against all priorities across the municipality in future budgets.”
Mr Phillip also noted the Council’s 10-year capital program has an allocation of almost 14 million towards new footpaths across the municipality that is unallocated from 2026-27 financial year and could potentially go towards projects in the area and Mr Supple would be contacted by an officer from the infrastructure team to discuss the roads he is concerned about in more detail.
Mr Supple said to the Star Mail that it was disappointing but not surprising the funding was lost.
“We’ve been lobbying since 2019-2020, when we first raised our concerns with the council in a big way and since 2019, we’ve been lobbying pretty hard for the council and VicRoads to do something,” he said.
“Both sides of the highway has no clear paths or access to and from the bus stop, so kids are either walking a little track through mud or they’re having to walk the highway shoulder to get to the bus stop now and there are a number of elderly people and disabled people getting to that bus stop with great difficulty,”
“It’s a huge safety concern not only for the kids but just for the locals here to get on and off the bus safely and be able to get back to the house without being covered in mud or risking being clipped by a car.”
