NEWS ALERT: Landry rejects Mayor’s waffle on Quay Street The Federal LNP Member for Capricornia has fired a barbed arrow at Rockhampton’s Mayor - accusing her of ‘peddling waffle’ over who should pay for road works as part of rejuvenating the city’s historic riverside precinct. “Just get on and fix up your blinking roads and pot holes properly, Margaret!” was the blunt message issued to city hall today by Michelle Landry MP. Ms Landry was responding to an opinion column in the Morning Bulletin (Saturday 10.1.15) in which Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow expressed frustration that Quay Street was full of pot holes – but that Council would have to await the outcome of Federal or State Government grant applications before the roadway could be repaired. “That’s a load of waffle,” Ms Landry said, “as part of the Federal Government’s Stronger Regions grants program, to which Council has applied for funding to develop the riverbank precinct – it stipulates that any project put forward cannot shift costs from local government (eg: council roads and footpaths) to the Commonwealth, if the work is part Councils general duties. “This council seems to have forgotten their essential role is rates, roads and rubbish – with emphasis on roads. It is Council’s responsibility to maintain city streets and footpaths, and definitely not the job of the Federal Government. “The Mayor knows that she can get on and fix her pot holes and Quay traffic zone herself. Rockhampton roads haven’t deteriorated overnight. They have been under-maintained by local government for years.” The MP said the Labor-led Rockhampton Regional Council was always full of excuses as to why it could not just get on with its legislated duties. “It’s bizarre that the Labor Mayor says she can’t move forward without the results of State or Federal grant applications. Did Council forget that the previous State Government had already provided her with $6 million to fix up the Quay Street precinct years ago – but Council chose to spend that money outside of the city.” Ms Landry stressed that the Federal Liberal National Coalition Government had already been generous in granting the Rockhampton Council a lot of help to fix up local city roads in the past year. “It’s pretty far-fetched for the Mayor to say she’s waiting on Federal Government money to fix up the road on Quay Street – when it’s clearly her responsibility. She says she has some money – then, I say get on with it Margaret and stop this bellyaching. Local streets are your responsibility and you’ve had over a decade to fix them up.” Ms Landry said: “What we are waiting on, is to see if Council’s application is successful to the Federal Government for assistance to spruce up the riverbank precinct in Rockhampton. But the key criteria – aside from not duplicating Council works – was that it had to create on-going job opportunities. The department will have to assess if it is satisfied Council can achieve this as part of the outcome” How has the Federal Government helped with Rockhampton city roads in the past year? • Rocky gets millions from Federal Roads to Recovery program: Last year, the Federal Government awarded 5 local councils in Capricornia a total of $30 million to help fix council roads and streets over 5 years under the Federal Roads to Recovery programme. The Rockhampton Regional Council was awarded over $6.3 million over five years – with the first instalment of $ 1 million already paid. • Rocky city roads benefits from Federal black spots programme: After lobbying from Ms Landry, the Federal Government also provided an extra $1.165million to the city to fix up three dangerous traffic ‘black spots’ in Rockhampton city. Ms Landry said the funds were part of the Federal Government’s $500 million national Black Spot Programme for local roads and included: • Kent Street and Denham Street - $850,000 to install a single lane roundabout. • Thozet Road and Rockonia Road, Koongal - $260,000 to install traffic signals with pedestrian crossing facilities. • Fitzroy Street and East Street - $55,000 – to relocate a pedestrian crossing further north and provide kerb extensions, additional lighting and a median strip. • Rocky motorists benefit from Federal George/Albert Street upgrades: In other parts of the city the Federal Government poured much needed money into improving the George Street and Albert Street highway intersection on the south side of Rockhampton’s CBD thanks to a $9.2 million Federal contribution. The project, in fact, came in under budget and improved an extremely congested city intersection that sees almost 30,000 cars and heavy vehicles go by each day. • Work continues on $296 million Bruce Highway upgrade at Rocky: The Federal Government continuous to pay $236 million towards the $296 million stage 2 upgrade of the Yeppen South project on the Bruce Highway at the front gates to Rockhampton – to allow the city to remain open in times of flood. The project is providing improved infrastructure and local jobs. “Based on all of these Federal contributions, it’s clear the Mayor is completely responsible for the state of pot holes on her local city roads and has had plenty of help from Canberra since I have been in this job,” Ms Landry said.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 00:31:06 +0000
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