our infrastructure is going down hill (18)

ever driven around, and looked at the sides of the road,weeds not tended trees leaning on powerlines,potholes in hwys,drainage systemsnot piped and open as in third world countries,slow response to police matters and road accidents ,it goes on and on.I wonder if its a growing problem in the modern world,lousy governments like the hopeless one weve got now,that worries more on who,s going to win the top seat in their party rather than worry about whats happening to the country,and only caring about their fat paychecks.with the economy in the world going down ,i think our important infrastructures need to be looked after more to keep the way of life were used to intact,otherwise were going to become a race of dirty lazy people that just watch every thing go wrong and dont do anything about it.

Pebbs, dealing with that every day at work. Farmers used to keep the drains through their properties cleared to let the water through their paddocks. 15 years of dry weather and they haven't bothered. Now it is wet and they want someone else to do the work. I deal with small (1 acre) and large property owners who are on old waterways who raise merry hell with Councillors about a bit of damp in the paddock. I spend more time answering them than doing the real work of keeping it out of peoples homes. Councillor queries do take priority for some reason.

And I agree that Council's have let slip on the infrastrucutre badly. Councillors make the final decisions on how Council money is to be spent. New halls, new playgrounds, new swimming pools, walking tracks between Nowhersville and Woop-Woop is what gets them the votes.

"Just put a bit of bitumen over the gravel road and then there will be no dust." Too bad that the road was only a goat track originally built for small milk truck and not the semis & B-doubles going along them now.

Due to lack of funding, some things have to be done as cheaply as possible. And then they become a maintenance nightmare. I work for a rural council and the 'new blood' in engineering over the last 4 years has been trying to get the infrastructure improved. The heavy rain events over the last 2 years have highlighted a lot of issues that we have been trying to deal with.

No maintenance by the Cacthment Authorities to maintain their drains (we have one canal that has taken out more than half the road) resulting in water not being able to get away and leaving homes under water.

Patching roads because there isn't enough money to reconstruct them properly. And "Why reconstruct that road when this one is gravel and the new property owners are getting mud on their cars whenever it rains?"

"Why replace that drainage line when it asn't needed over the last 15 years?" Could be that the system was ever designed to have that new 500 lot development upstream.

Table drains never get cleared as they were taken out of the road maintenance contracts because it never rains.

So when you vote at the Council elections this year (assuming you will vote), vote for those who want the infrastrucutre improved rather than those who want more halls and playgrounds (let the developers pay for them)

yeah i know what youre saying,i have a dry creek in my property,twenty years ago i told the council to pipe the drain leading into the dry creek,and repair the drain under the hwybecuase the water is slowly eroding the banks,and in a few years it will be a disaster,and will eventually erode the hwy,well it now is a disaster,it has eroded 100metres of my property and next doors,and undermined the soil structure of the hwy where the broken drains leak.you know what the idiot council did?they redefined the boundary to suit themselves ,so that the bad part of the drain is now in my property lol and i have to fix it at my expense.vic roads repaired the hwy sidebut said it can still erode,and funding not availablefor a total reconstruction of the hwy they wont even put up a grate to stop rubbish entering the drain so i have to clean up two trailerloads of garbage every time we get a downpour,and the creek is littered.and when i place the garbage on the hwy and tell the council to come and get it, your rubbish is a nuisance, they dont come for a week and the rubbish is all over the road.they expect me to spend 7hrs picking up theier rubbish and take it to the tip and make me pay for the tip lol.a few of the locals have decided we are going to put chicken wire over the drain which wil trap the rubbish ,and vic roads will hav to come and remove it,as the road will flood because the water will not get away lol.fight fire with fire

If I get started on this topic, I will go troppo...

if i get stated i,ll go for 50 pagesi cant stand the communist pricks,the people that work on the councils roads etc are alrigfht,they just get told what to do but only as far as the councils budget will let em.its the heirachy of the establishment i cant stand,they wait for a downturn inthe economy when people are struggling like back in the recesssion and then they pounce.the guy next door was on death watch with cancerand had 10 yrs to live,and they came round and said we are redefining the fence lines[to suit themselves]and you are going to lose 7metres of you land by a lenghth of 150metres,by doing that he lost his shed his carport his concrete driveway,and had to spend 40,000bucks on re drainage and pipework also bitumen and new fencing.compulsory aquissition.stinks.its communism at its best,you never own your land,if they want it they take it,unless you stand there with a bloody gun and fend em off till youre dead.the guy ended up only living another two yrs because of stress.

too right ajax, i have said it for ages,were livin under an illegal system

Collectivism is the right word. Unfortunately, many Councillors are looking at their votes rather than the 'better good of the whole community.' Those that work for the local Councils try to do the 'community best benefit.' But votes usually win the day.

12 months ago I put together a very lengthy report to get $4m in funding over the next 4 years. My priority was to get funding for the roads and bridges that are failing. Council's priority is for those 200 year old goat tracks to remote areas to be sealed.

And sorry, Pebbs, sometimes we do need to officially acquire those waterways that only appear whenever it rains. The good news for you is that now they have committed to maintain them rather than you having to do something about it. Unfortuntately, everyone in your local area will have to contribute more (increased rates) for your natural waterway to be maintained.