NRMA's RED FLAG SURVEY

Dear community

http://www.mynrma.com.au/about/news/seeing-red-on-roads.htm


The above link takes you to the NRMA's Red Flag survey where motorists get to nominate a road they think needs State Government funding. Wendy Machin, NRMA president, is well-familiar with our local roads and drove Bulga and Colling Roads late last year to see the conditions for herself. We are hopeful that she will be able to influence the roads minister in his decision on whether to reclassify this tourist route so that it becomes eligible for State assistance.

Meanwhile, her advisor Ron Collins has recommended that we participate in this NRMA survey. Please take a few moments to respond to it online.

We have invited both Wendy Machin and Ron Collins to sign our petition. Currently we are still awaiting Andrew Stoner's advice on the timing for handing over the petition.

THE HON ANDREW STONER MP - UPDATE

Dear community

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/02/24/3438880.htm?site=midnorthcoast§ion=news

If you would like to hear what Andrew Stoner had to say about the Bulga/Colling Rd reclassification on ABC MNC the morning after meeting with TD8 members in Comboyne, please click on the above link. His comments were very positive and supportive, but made no firm commitments. We are very grateful for the $2.5m assistance pledged towards the new bridges, but we also need the reclassification for the sake of the roads.

The petition has reached around 1500 signatures, so thank you to all who have signed and collected signatures. It is not too late to send in petition forms (to S Kwa c/o-PO Elands 2429) as we are awaiting advice from Mr Stoner as to when he will be meeting with the minister. GTCC is in the process of drafting a letter of support, jointly with PMHC.

Even if you have signed, now would be a really good time to write to Mr Stoner, and copy to Mr Stephen Bromhead whose electorate shares the route, and the Minister for Roads and Ports, Mr Duncan Gay. The GTCC works manager, Stephen Yam, has confirmed that Bulga and Colling Roads will continue to slowly deteriorate, even though they are important tourist roads, unless there is support from the State Government. He urged us not to give up the fight for reclassification. GTCC's revenue shortfall is $20m every year and has accumulated a backlog of over $200m.

We are a small and quiet community that doesn't complain much, but local roads are reaching crisis point, so if you have a few minutes please send a brief email to:

The Hon Andrew Stoner MP
E-mail Address(es):
oxley@parliament.nsw.gov.au

The Hon Stephen Bromhead MP
E-mail Address(es):
myalllakes@parliament.nsw.gov.au

The Hon Duncan Gay MLC
E-mail Address(es):
office@gay.minister.nsw.gov.au

Add your postal address so they can send a reply.

DO YOU WANT TO HELP? IF SO, GRAB A PETITION

If you are interested in reclassification of the road, heres how you can help.  Grab a petition from any of the locations below

* Wingham Chronicle
* Wingham Library
* Bent on Food
* Manning River Times
* The Visitor Information Centre
* Elands Store
* Ellenborough Falls Kiosk
* Comboyne Store and Community Centre
* Udder Cow Cafe

or email us at  us td8actiongroup@gmail.com and we will forward you a form.

Find as many people that you can to sign the petition and send the completed petitions to Sandra Kwa, c/- Elands Store, Elands.

Remember that the petition must have a name, address and be signed for it to be valid.

Petition News

The topic of the petition received good media coverage on Wednesday 8th February, on the same day that TD8 meet with the Hon Andrew Stoner.  The Hon Andrew Stoner announced on ABC radio the following morning that he would undertake to deliver the petition to the Hon Duncan Gay with his full support.

Watch this space for more news.

PETITION UPDATE & ROADS FORUM

Welcome to the New Year.
 
Petition Update

We had much success over the Christmas and New Year period in respect to the compiling of names on petitions.  Petition forms were left at the Falls and most tourists more than happy to complete the form promoting the call for funding and reclassification of the road. 

The td8actiongroup were also out and about collecting names, and of course Christmas day was a great time to rally family and friends to the cause.

At this stage we appear to have well over a thousand names.

For those of you who have gathered names over the break if you could please forward to Sandra Kwa c/- Elands Post Office as soon as possible, that would be excellent.  We are keen to understand how many we have to hand so that we may start planning our submission to the State Government.

For those of you who are keen to assist if you could please print out the attached petition form and gather some names, that too would be excellent.  Remember we need the signature, name and address for the petition to be valid.

When you have gathered all your names please forward the forms to Sandra Kwa, c/- Elands Post Office, by no later than Monday 13th February 2012. 

Roads Forum

The Manning Valley Business Chamber is holding a Roads Forum on Thursday 2nd February 2012, arrive from 12.00 noon to commence 12.30 pm, at Albert Street, Taree Uniting Church.

Invitees include Local, State and Federal Government representatives.

The forum is specifically to discuss roads funding for the region and the future.  A representative from td8actiongroup will be attending, however we encourage everyone to participate in what is a major issue for the Manning Valley.

PETITION FOR CLASSIFICATION OF BULGA & COLLING ROADS FROM LOCAL TO REGIONAL

Help Secure the Money to Make Our Roads Safe 

The  Facts

•  Greater Taree City Council (GTCC) has no funds to ensure our roads are safe and appropriately maintained.

• GTCC’s backlog of infrastructure works is $200 million (as at Sept 2011) and is expected to increase by $20 million per year.

•  Unless we can secure additional funds for our roads they will continue to deteriorate and become increasingly unsafe for use by our families and friends, the school bus, the business community and local, interstate and international tourists.

• The only solution is to secure financial support from the State and Federal government.

• The State government gives annual funding to local councils to maintain roads classified as “Regional” because of their significance.

 How you can help!

Sign the petition today calling for the classification of Bulga and Colling Roads, along Tourist Drive 8, from Local to Regional Roads. Tourist Drive 8 is a heavily promoted tourist drive that provides access to the Legendary Ellenborough Falls and connects the Manning and Hastings Valleys yet much of it is classified as “Local” road and therefore receives no assistance from the State.

For signatures to be valid you have to write your name, address and signature. Please send the completed sheets to Sandra Kwa, c/o Elands Post Office, Elands 2429 by Tuesday 31st January 2012.

For a copy of the petition or for further information please contact us via the email td8actiongroup@gmail.com or post a comment on this site.

COMMUNITY MEETING - WEDNESDAY 7TH DECEMBER 2011 BULGA HALL

As you are all aware a community meeting was held on 27th November 2011.  Given the diverse responses and the need to further discuss the matter it was suggested that a follow up meeting be held on Wednesday 7th  December 2011 at the Bulga Hall.  The outcome is detailed below:

1. Assessment of what's required to make the Road safe

• Use the engineering and road building knowledge within our community to prepare a document that outlines clearly the work required on the Upper Bulga Road to make it safe and specifies a maintenance program to keep it this way
• This document would look at factors such as the piping for water management and road design
• The aim of this document is to quantify the work required so we have facts and figures to support our request
• Damon, Greg and Kerry to work on this project together and have offered to make any information they put together available to individuals to use for an assessment of their own road
• Marie offered to share the drainage points information provided by GTCC when they built their property

2. See the reinstatement of Upper Bulga Road's classification as a Regional Road

• A petition requesting the reinstatement of Upper Bulga Road and Colling Road as a regional road is currently in circulation
• We would aim to get as many signatures on this petition over the peak holiday time
• Some key points identified to include in the submission for the reclassification:
• Ellenborough Falls will soon be a National Park
• The potential impact of the War Veterans' Remembrance Drive initiative
• The potential negative environmental impact of the road washing away
• Ensuring access for emergency vehicles
• Safety concerns for locals and tourists
• If the School bus could no longer travel down the road, the Dept of Transport would have to pay parents to take their children to school
• It was suggested that we approach GTCC and ask them to put a counter at the Falls to determine the number of cars using the road

3. Lobby Council

•  Seek to get the support from GTCC to lodge a joint submission with Port Macquarie Hastings Council for the reclassification of the road
• Maybe get Councillors to come up and see the road
• Encourage locals to make videos to post to YouTube to generate support for our cause
• Put a draft letter and the key contacts at GTCC on www.elandsonline.info so people can easily lobby GTCC
• Encourage locals to register all accidents that occur on the road - Greg to provide contact details of who to report the accident to and this information will be posted to www.elandsonline.info

4. Engage the support of Tourists

• Ask them to sign the petition
• Give them an extra piece of paper that encourages them to also write to the Council or to post comments to our website.

UPDATE FROM TD8 ACTION GROUP - 28th November 2011

Below is the update provided by the TD8 Action Group at the Elands Community Lunch and Meeting on Sunday 27th November.

The state of the Upper Bulga Road was a key topic of discussion at the meeting and all in attendance agreed that they wanted the road fixed. While a few ideas were discussed, it was suggested that it would be best to have a meeting to specifically discuss the road. It was agreed that this meeting would take place at 7.30pm on Wednesday 7th December at the Bulga Soldiers Memorial Hall and all are welcome. At this meeting TD8 action group will present a more detailed overview of their recent activities and possible ways for securing the support needed to address the immediate and long term needs of the upper Bulga Road.

STATUS OF THE MARLEE AND DUFFS BRIDGES
The design of the new Marlee and Duffs bridges is now underway. GTCC originally attended to build the Duffs bridge on a new alignment but as some potential aboriginal heritage artefacts were found in the proposed area, it is now most likely that the replacement Duffs bridge will be built on the existing alignment. It is likely that the pre-tender meetings will not take place until January / February 2012. It is the intention of GTCC officers to table a further report to Council regarding the bridges at the December 2011 meeting.

The impact of Duffs bridge now being built on the existing alignment is that this bridge will also need to be shut down for a period of 7 – 10 days at some point during construction, but that is a long way off at this stage and GTCC will be providing regular updates on this to the community.

A 400 tonne crane is required to replace the bridges and a crane of this size will be shipped to the site in pieces and then assembled (assembly alone will take around 5 -6 days). The crane is so large that it is likely that GTCC will also be required to design and construct a concrete pad for it to be placed on.

GTCC received written confirmation earlier this week that the $2.5 million as committed by the State Government will be available to Council in the 2012-2013 financial year.

UPPER BULGA ROAD
GTCC will shortly receive approximately $80,000 from the RTA as part of the natural disaster funding so they can undertake more extensive geotechnical investigations into the slips that took place in June 2011. The RTA are continuing to assess GTCC’s damage claim and the Council hope they will know the RTA’s position on the overall funding claim in the next month or so.

GTCC advised TD8 that the RTA will most probably not provide any funding to Council until November / December 2012 and even if they do provide some level of funding to GTCC later this year, there is no guarantee that they will receive the full amount of the estimate provided to them. GTCC also advised TD8 that it should be clearly noted that the RTA will only fund Council in order to bring the road up to the pre-event condition – they do not provide funding for bringing the road up to a higher standard than it was prior to the storm event. To do this, additional funding would be required by Council.

In relation to the Federal funding of $12.7 million for roads and bridges, GTCC has lodged a funding application however Bulga Road is not included in the works program should GTCC be successful in their funding request.

OPTIONS TD8 HAS BEEN EXPLORING TO SEEK A SAFE & WELL-MAINTAINED ROAD
“Road Maintenance” Volunteers
This idea is modelled on the Rural Fire Service and has been raised by TD8 with GTCC. Council have agreed to discuss it with the Hon. Jennifer Gardiner however as something like this would require the introduction of legislation, it is not anticipated such a service would be created quickly.

Return of Bulga Road to a regional road
The return of Bulga Road to a regional road would provide access to State funding. Over the last two years, TD8 has supplied a reclassification submission to two Roads Ministers and discussed it on a number of occasions with our local member, the Hon. Andrew Stoner. To date, our request has been declined. We recently raised this issue with GTCC and they have agreed to discuss the possibility of a join request for reclassification with Port Macquarie Hastings Council. Following the local launch of the Legendary Pacific Coast program, material regarding the request for reclassification has again been supplied to the Road Minister’s office.

Access to special funding
Given TD8 is repeatedly told by GTCC that they don’t have the funds required to maintain the roads within the Local Government Area, we have asked GTCC if there are any other funding avenues they can access. GTCC has advised TD8 that when the details of the NSW Infrastructure Fund are available, they will enquire if this Fund may provide any additional funding that could be used for roads.