Patch-up jobs: Residents take aim at road management in Knox

The story:

A local Knox resident has taken the local council to task for its slow response times to fixing potholes and footpaths.

Knox resident Robert Mason submitted a public question to the Monday December 16 public meeting, asking if councillors were prepared to accept its service standards, which he posited were below the standards of other nearby council areas.

Local listeners alerted a particular pothole on the corner of Stud Road and Lakeview Avenue in Rowville to 3AW’s Tony Jones on Tuesday, with the presenter describing what he saw as a “crater”.

One listener said the pothole had been worsening over the past three or four months.

We visited the pothole site on Thursday to find a quick fix had been put in place to reduce the size of the bump in the road.

The local impact:

Mr Mason said the standards Knox Council had set for themselves were not up to scratch.

“A lot of the councillors stood on a platform of roads, rates and rubbish for getting back so these are the opportunities for councillors to take action,” he said.

“Other councils can repair a pothole in 10 days.”

“Knox Council takes 32 days to fix a pothole.”

Mr Mason added that the state of some footpaths were unsafe for those with disabilities to use.

“We need to have undulation intervention levels like other councils do,” he said.

The council’s response:

Knox Council infrastructure director Grant Thorne said the council’s Road Management Plan involved a two-step process: to inspect and make the defect safe, and to undertake rectification works to restore the asset to its intended full functionality.

“A Road Management Plan is developed to take into account competing priorities which may impact on deliverable outcomes,” he said.

“These priorities may include, but are not limited to, prevailing budgetary context, the current economic environment, social context and service delivery.”

Thomas said Knox had the shortest response times in the first step of the plan: to make the defect safe.

Addressing Mason’s question, Taylor Ward councillor Susan Pearce said the recently elected council had not had enough time to look at fixing the road issue.

“I walk the streets of Taylor Ward,” she said.

“I know the sum of the footpaths, but we’ve only been in six weeks.

“So give me a little time, and we'll see what we can achieve.”

The facts:

Knox Council has developed a Road Management Plan in accordance with the Road Management Act 2004, with the current version taking effect from May 22, 2023.

Knox Council will be undertaking a review of the road management plan by October 31, 2025.