Councillor Don Palmer Providing Local Leadership & Working for You

One of the things I have found most interesting since representing the good people of the Goodwood South Ward is the number of occasions I have sent a request to our depot to fix trip hazards. I have lost count of the number of hazards I have reported, all of which up to now thankfully have been fixed.

I have been gratified by the response from the Depot. They acknowledge my request within 24 hours and generally the hazard identified by me has been fixed within a week or two.

A couple of weekends ago while delivering the ward newsletter to houses south of the rail line I identified some 50 hazards. That is a huge number but I expect our depot to repeat their history of fixing them up. All but a handful of these related to our brick pavers. The bitumen footpaths and there are still many of them in Goodwood South.

As we look to our footpath replacement scheme I raise this question, in light of this history.

The bitumen footpaths, many of which are in quite poor condition are not presenting as requiring attention to correct trip hazards. The brick pavers though, even footpaths that might be considered generally as being in good nick are presenting trip hazards all too frequently.

Should we reconsider replacing the remaining bitumen footpaths with brick pavers given these observations.

The photo on the left is a typical movement in bitumen paving adjacent a tree. The one on the right is typical of movement adjacent a tree in brick pavers.

I ask anyone reading this blog what your thoughts are. Are we on the right track.

As council considers the continuation of the brick paved footpath program the elected members representing you need to know……If you have a bitumen footpath that is, in your opinion, in need of replacement; would you prefer to have a new brick paved footpath or a new bitumen one.