Councillor Don Palmer Providing Local Leadership & Working for You

Increasing rates diminishing services is the catch cry of a today tonight storey on Channel 7 tonight.

3robrogers_potholeslalom_robrogersA damming story aired tonight on the popular Channel 7 program about Council rates rising but services provided reducing. Two councils, Salisbury and Charles Sturt, were the focus of the story. Interestingly these are two of the State’s largest municipalities.

Thankfully the City of Unley did not feature. Unley is one of the smaller.

Two primary concerns were highlighted by the program. The first was maintenance of verges. Fixing pot holes in roads was the second.

One resident in Salisbury expects that verges should be cut by Council. The street shown on TV was one where there is a fence on the property boundary. This conflicts with those suburbs where there is no fence and where everyone appreciates the verge is the responsibility of the home owner. Here in Unley we have been giving residents the option of a green verge on the condition it is looked after by them. The alternative is for a dolomite verge.

Road potholes in Unley I don’t believe is a problem. If anything I believe we may have been over-serving in road replacement.

Removing trip hazards in footpath has been my bane. We have in my opinion too many trip hazards in our “brick” paved footpaths. That is a story for another day as we review what footpath service level we are prepared to accept. This is a debate we are currently having and I expect to report further on this sooner rather than later.

I ask you, what is the answer where or when Councils are under performing?

What do you expect from council when it comes to mowing verges, repairing pot holes in roads or eradicating footpath trip hazards? Do you agree with the topic of this article………increasing rates diminishing returns? What about my opinion on Unley. Is it accurate or do you believe Unley is as guilty as the two mentioned in the program?

Walking the streets of Unley I am forever reporting what I see. I often wonder how long the issue I have found, a trip hazard or whatever, has been there. I also wonder if the people who live in the adjacent house or work at the adjacent shop or office have reported it or whether they think Council should simply be ware without being alerted by them.

Help us to be better than those being complained about. Reporting what concerns you to us rather than to a TV station or the RAA would help.

You can do this by ringing 83725111, be emailing us at [email protected]. Another way is to report it via our website at https://online.unley.sa.gov.au/ePathway/Production/Web/Default.aspx?js=-1154500411

Better yet how about downloading the My Local Services Web App for your smart phone.

Help us to help you and stay in front of such bad press.