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Letters to the editor

Letters to the editor

I saw your article in issue 16 of the ‘Southbank Local News’ regarding “Footpath blockage, but no help” and I would like to give you a residents, ratepayers and pedestrian’s perspective of the Queensbridge footpath closure.

A year ago they closed the footpath without notice or any information on why and when it would be reopened. This is an appalling situation and it appears the Mayor, City Council or the construction company just don’t care that the residents are inconvenienced.

I have written and e-mailed the Mayor and the council and they think it is acceptable that, when the residents walk out of their building, they are confronted by barriers blocking them from crossing the road and they are continuing the increase these barriers so now people waiting for a tram can no longer access the shelter.

If the Mayor or the CEO of the construction company were faced with this outside their house they wouldn’t be happy, so why should the ratepayers who pay the council’s wages be happy too?

We now find out it will be another two and half years before the residents can access the footpath we paid for, making it over three and half years in total it will be closed!

The Mayor doesn’t care. The council runs the city for its own convenience and its charter should read “to inconveniences the residents, ratepayers and pedestrians as much as possible”.

Just to give you a couple of examples, both Flinders Lane and Little Collins St have two footpath closures each over Swanston St, I have personally had to change my walk to work four times in the past two years to avoid the closures!

And September last year they put a fence around Birrarung Marr without any notice and closed it too. They did put a sign to explain why – eights weeks after the closure, which was very kind of them!

Just to show you how much the council cares I have a letter form the CEO which is head “Docklands Footpath Closure”. They don’t even check their letters!

Craig Foster

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