VICROADS is being blamed for flooded roads and gutters dampening trade along Rosebud’s shopping strip.
Mornington Peninsula Shire Council says the pits and drainage system are the responsibility of VicRoads to clean and maintain and that it contacted the authority to alert it to blocked sewage run off points causing flooding along the strip as far back as May.
Jetty’s Pizza proprietor Bahaa Jamal Eddine said calls to the shire complaining about flooding on the corner of Jetty and Point Nepean roads and urging a quick clean-up had not been actioned and that the flooding was turning customers away (“Flooded roads bad for business” The News 25/6/19).
“Jetty’s Pizza and Baro have had reservations not turn up in the evenings due to the flooding on this intersection,” he said.
“It’s a big put off to have to drive through flood water to patronise a business: who would risk that in order just to eat – especially when it rains on days like it did on Wednesday 12 June.
“We do not need more reasons for people to avoid visiting our stores in the depths of winter when many local businesses struggle regardless of this additional handicap. This is a weekly occurrence during winter.”
But the shire’s acting executive manager infrastructure services Rebecca Levy said the shire had “urgently contacted VicRoads on 2 May to notify them of the flooding”.
“VicRoads advised they would be sending a crew immediately to the flooded intersection and that they would liaise directly with the customer to notify them that their request had been lodged,” she said.
Also, following Mr Eddine’s plea to the council, the shire’s roads, drainage and cleansing team inspected the run-off points and provided a response which the mayor Cr David Gill delivered on Monday 24 June.
“The pits and drainage system are the responsibility of VicRoads to clean and maintain,” Cr Gill said.
“A few weeks ago when we had heavy rain we notified [VicRoads] that the pits required cleaning out and they assured us that it would happen in the near future.
“After further investigation VicRoads confirmed that the flooding was due to sand build up in the pits which were cleaned this week.”
The mayor said he understood the importance of maintaining infrastructure and committed to responding quickly when issues were reported.
“Council will continue to advocate that this interruption to traders and their customers be fixed as soon as possible.”
A Department of Transport spokesperson said: “As soon as we were made aware of an issue affecting roadside drains on Point Nepean Road, we took immediate steps to investigate the cause.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 9 July 2019
