Calls for action as footpaths fall short

A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD girl’s request to install a footpath at Alfredton’s Windsor Avenue has left the city looking at concrete solutions to a years-old problem.

With no footpaths around her suburb, Felicity Driscoll and other kids are often forced to walk by the curb or on the street on their way to school.

She said the issue was especially apparent with recent wet weather.

“We have to go to the road but staying near the grass. When we get near the footpath, it’s way better, but for the rest of it it’s all soggy,” she said.

“There’s a girl with roller-skates who has to go on the road and back up to the grass.”

Felicity’s mother Natasha said it’s been a persistent source of frustration since they moved to the suburb five years ago.

“You get footpaths along Sturt and Cuthberts and then Elaine Avenue connects to that, and then there’s nothing that connects Sturt to Cuthberts anywhere else,” she said.

“It’d be nice if a footpath was on the main thoroughfare where it gets really busy. The corner of Elaine and Windsor Avenue just becomes slop lately and too wet to walk on.”

As part of a school assignment, Felicity wrote a letter to then-City of Ballarat mayor Cr Daniel Moloney in August asking for a footpath for Windsor Avenue.

The response, which cited the obstacles of retrofitting costs and project priorities, prompted Felicity to create a petition for the issue, garnering around 70 signatures before soggy conditions prevented her from collecting more.

With more than 100 footpath projects listed by the municipality, City of Ballarat director of infrastructure and environment Bridget Wetherall said there are many factors regarding prioritisation.

“With these projects, for each budget cycle, we assess them on costs, the length of footpath and what other challenges might be at that site,” she said.

As footpaths were previously not a requirement for developers to build in some suburbs, Ms Wetherall said the city is “playing catch up” with budget constraints front of mind.

“It is an inherited issue from decisions made in the past. We just have to address it as budget allows,” she said.

“The gentrification of different areas and the people moving in is really influencing how people utilise those assets. What was considered appropriate back then may not be so now.”

More than $600,000 has been allocated in the 2022/23 budget for installing footpaths, which Ms Wetherall said equates to about three kilometres’ worth of new construction.

Felicity brought the issue to councillors for question time during their regular meeting in December.

Cr Moloney called for a report to come to council at a later meeting to discuss the outstanding footpath list.

“This is an ongoing issue that keeps popping up every budget cycle,” he said.

City of Ballarat CEO, Evan King said there are parts of the city that “have no funding at all” for footpaths and that a report could be brought to council on the list of requests.

“I’m certainly happy to bring a briefing back to council to have a look at that list… the costing of it… [and] the current budget allocation and whether there’s any opportunity to start to look at whether we can make some inroads,” he said.

Felicity recently read her letter in a public presentation to her classmates.

Although she said she’s happy with council’s response, Natasha isn’t holding out hope for anything to be built right away.

“It’s a great outcome and I would love to see something sooner rather than later,” she said.

“I know it’s a budget issue but… it’s something that’ll help the community for the better and council’s always saying they want people to be more active.

“And a road like this that’s connecting two main arterial roads right near schools and public spaces, you’d think would be pretty high on a priority list.”