Call to fix growing problem pothole

WITH recent rains impacting roads throughout the region, a Barunah Plains woman has been asking for months for Golden Plains Shire to fix a large hole at Cressy-Shelford Road.

Located between Geggies and Bells roads, Margaret Bufton said the hole has only gotten worse.

“It’s been there since before October and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger,” she said.

“Probably quite a few people have had to stop because of it but we’ve gotten at least five people that have really done the damage who’ve pulled over and needed repairs.

“One gentleman damaged his vehicle very substantially, and we even had two people within an hour during the Beyond the Valley music festival.

“We had one person with his car on a jack. Another was waiting hours for RACV and the fella actually had to cut the bolt because they couldn’t get the punctured tyre off.

“Twice, I’ve sent a complaint notifying VicRoads who are supposed to pass it on to Golden Plains. I only had a reply the other week and no one’s spoken to the Shire.”

A spokesperson for the municipality said their maintenance programs were temporarily suspended to divert attention to flood-impacted roads, with their major patching works having recommenced in early January.

“Patching crews are currently working on the northern half of the Shire and will be working their way to the south, attending to roads on a priority basis,” the spokesperson said.

“Council is working through a backlog of damaged roads and we anticipate to have caught up with road damage caused by floods within the next three to four months.”

With the municipality applying for funding from the State Government’s flood recovery fund, the Golden Plains Shire spokesperson also said the Cressy-Shelford Road hole will soon be addressed.

“It’s anticipated that Cressy-Shelford Road will be repaired within a month, subject to contractor availability and favourable weather conditions,” the spokesperson said.

“This year’s patching works schedule is significantly bigger than previous years due to the impact of the storm events in October and November last year.”

Ms Bufton said there’s been no sign of resolution from the municipality, with warning signage placed by her son and markings on the road left by others to alert drivers.

Above all, she said she’d like to see some acknowledgement from the municipality.

“This is a dividing road between Shire of Colac Otway and Golden Plains Shire so we had works being done on Colac’s end and you could see they were doing things,” she said.

“The wet weather might have exacerbated the situation but this hole was definitely here before that.

“We’d just like to know that council is listening and that something will be done.”