Councils have a reputation for sometimes dragging the chain, as big budgets and the slow wheels of bureaucracy mean it takes time to get things done.
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But 62 years to install some basic guttering in a suburban street seems an inordinately long time by anyone’s standards.
However, this is the plight of residents in a segment of Cross Street, Corrimal, who said they were “astounded” to find their neighbours had been waiting since 1954 for Wollongong City Council to install proper kerbs.
The Mercury highlighted the decades-long Cross Street plight 10 years ago, when residents Joan and Bill Adlington spoke out about their then 52-year wait for kerb and guttering.
Mrs Adlington had kept records of her letters to various mayors over the years, but after being told but the council that there was no clear timeline to complete the works, she wondered if “we will be around when the work is finally done”.
Sadly, Bill passed away three years ago.
The Adlingtons’ enraged neighbours, Marie Caine and Paul Evans have now taken over the fight, using Mrs Adlington’s well-documented efforts to petition the council to complete the works.
“We just want kerb and guttering and drainage in our street,” Ms Caine said.
“There are not many people who don’t have gutters these days, and 62 years of waiting is pathetic.
‘’When it rains the water has nowhere to go, and we have just been left here isolated without basic infrastructure.”
During this year’s council budget planning process, residents wrote multiple submissions to draw attention to their lack of gutters, successfully convincing the council to spend $10,000 on designing the Cross Street kerbs.
Funds, expected to be about $150,000, will be “allocated in 2017/18 budget, pending a suitable design outcome”, according to a council spokeswoman.
Mr Evans remains skeptical that the project will ever be completed.
“Talking to people who have lived here a long time, we don’t believe it’s going to happen,” he said.
“We will believe it when we see it, I think.”
Explaining the long wait, the spokeswoman said Cross Street’s kerb and guttering “did not rank highly” on the council’s priority list.
“Council prioritises its new kerbs based on several criteria including safety, localised flooding improvements, number of people benefitted etc,” she said.
“The majority of Council’s roads budget goes towards renewal of ageing infrastructure, which leaves a limited budget to build new kerb and shoulders.”
She said the council appreciated “these issues can be frustrating for residents but must consider the needs of the whole local government area when determining its priorities”.
Informed of the Cross Street situation by the Mercury on Wednesday, Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery acknowledged that 60 years was “a long time to wait”.
However, he said he hoped the project’s new inclusion in the capital works budget would see it completed in the coming years.
“I do apologise, and I wish we could have done it sooner, but at the same time there’s a lot of places that need attention in this city,” he said.
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
