Congratulations to Winchelsea Primary School for being awarded this year’s $10,000 Climate Emergency Grant with their project ‘School for Climate: Regeneration and Climate Action in Regional Communities’. Equally, congratulations to all those who voted for this project to give it more than twice as much support as the other projects that were put forward – a lovely bit of support by the community for the school. I look forward to (literally!) seeing the fruits of this project as they learn to create sustainable gardens.
As indicated in past articles, the Winchelsea Place Plan aims to provide the Shire with guidance for the ongoing development and growth of the town. It is so important that those who live and work in and around the town put in your own thoughts and ideas. The survey and panel submissions have now closed, next month sees the panel get together over several sessions to thrash out to guide development of the plan. I’ll be calling in too, it will be really interesting to see what comes up.
Have you seen the news about WYLD (the volunteer youth group, Winchelsea Youth Leisure Drop-in)? Great to see such a successful idea being revitalised, looking forward to seeing where the new people take it. Want to get involved? Contact Elaine via [email protected] or phone/text 0458 009 616. WYLD is an official ‘auspice group’ under the care of Winchelsea Community House.
The draft Road Management Plan (RMP) for the next 4 years up to 2029 is now out for you to review. For all those who want to see the Shire focus on roads more, this is THE document for you to pay attention to (second only to the annual budget which funds it!). Winchelsea rated satisfaction with roads lower than any other town – so what would make things better? Section 1.2.1 is well worth noting in this regard ie. that the plan has to be achievable within available budget – spending more on roads means spending less somewhere else. It’s also important to note that this RMP applies only to Council-managed roads within Surf Coast Shire.
To put the RMP into context, this isn’t about upgrading roads to be sealed, it isn’t about adding new footpaths - anything ‘new’ is separate. The RMP is about maintaining what’s already there; defining what triggers a response, how long it should take, what the priorities are. Our roads are classified depending on the type (eg. sealed vs unsealed) and how busy they are (eg. primary vs secondary). You can see maps of how each road is classified at surfcoast.vic.gov.au/Property/Roads/About-our-road-network (and note that on Google Maps all the yellow roads are State/Federal responsibility). I encourage you to take a look to see if you have strong reasons to disagree with a classification.
Most of all, I encourage you to take a look at pages 28 & 29 which specify what defects Council is required to step in to fix, and the timeframe to do so.
Something to bear in mind is section 2.6.1 which outlines the responsibilities of road users, as defined by law. In essence, you need to drive to the conditions of the road, your vehicle, and yourself regardless of posted speed limit or type of road.
As always, don’t forget to report ANY road issue you come across (on a Council road, of course) via the Shire’s website and its Lodge A Request facility. It won’t get fixed if the Shire doesn’t know about it…