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A north-east Melbourne council has identified more than a thousand defects across its state-owned road network and is blaming the Department of Transport for the dangerous – and deteriorating – conditions.
A recent report by the City of Whittlesea found 1302 issues across its 206 kilometres of government-managed roads, following two major council audits in the past eight months.
The most common defects include potholes, damaged guard rails, missing or damaged signs, dumped rubbish and roadkill. Other issues include overgrown vegetation and drainage problems.
Whittlesea Mayor Lawrie Cox said the condition of state arterials in the community was “nothing short of a disgrace”. Despite advocacy to local parliamentarians, he said that problems were still rife across the municipality.
“Councils can’t afford to pick up slack. It’s a cost-shifting argument … We’re not going to be spending ratepayers’ money on something that they’ve already paid taxes to cover,” Cox said.
From the late 1990s until 2023, council staff were contracted by the Department of Transport and planning to maintain local state-owned roads. But three years ago, the department moved to an alternative contractor to secure cheaper services.
State government contractors are now responsible for the majority of upkeep on state-owned roads, including any maintenance that happens “kerb to kerb”. Councils still need to complete some tasks like footpath repairs, maintaining service roads and mowing in certain areas.
Cox said that maintenance regularity dropped from about every eight weeks to every six months following the change in provider.
“We do a lot more regular maintenance on our roads that we control. We’re not saying we’re perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we do it a hell of a lot better,” Cox said.
“It’s a question of whether government and opposition listen. You’re heading into an election period and you hear plenty of promises. But it’s the actual delivery that we are waiting to see.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Transport and Planning said that the government was working with its contractors to prioritise road maintenance in Whittlesea as part of the state government’s road blitz.
“We’re fixing more potholes than last year and delivering more complex rebuilding and rehabilitation works to strengthen roads for the long term,” the spokesperson said.
While funding is discussed at a governmental level, existing defects pose an everyday challenge for Whittlesea locals. In a council survey of 254 people, 64 per cent described their road quality as either average, poor or very poor.
Resident Bea Tercan said that potholes were a particularly important issue in her community. She criticised the current approach to road maintenance, which she said was often delayed and poorly executed.
Tercan was forced to pay $3000 to fix her car after sustaining damage by driving through a large pothole on state-owned Dalton Road. She said that more money needs to be allocated towards maintenance.
“I feel like [the government] are pen pushers, sitting in their office looking at it from aerial. But they don’t actually physically go out there and see the damage of these potholes,” she said.
“If the government needs to fund it … fund the bloody thing. At the end of the day, we’re the ones that pay for our road costs. Our taxes go to this,” Tercan said.
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