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Friday, February 19, 2016

HAVING MY SAY ON THE NEW ENGLAND HIGHWAY FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME


Dear Roads and Maritime Services,

I have lived in Scone for 33 years and ever since I first arrived in August 1983 there has been talk of a bypass.

Notwithstanding vested bypass interests, the coal boom is over, and infrastructure that may have been deemed necessary once upon a ‘coal’ time is obviously not needed now. If we have managed to get through the coal boom without a bypass or an overpass to date from here on in we are hardly going to need the road developments estimated to facilitate projected vehicle increases.

In case you did not get the memo ... the coal industry has nose-dived.

I wrote the following two pieces for my Scone Blog almost three years ago:

1. Now what else can we do to ruin Scone – a bypass, anyone?

2. Mushroom Club CEO briefs shareholders May 8, 2013

... and I’m submitting them both now as my feedback concerning the New England Highway. 

We have suffered enough at the hands of the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) after you foolishly removed our round-about and inserted traffic lights as the round-about’s replacement. 

Again this gold-plating of road infrastructure was done with unfounded projections of our highway needs apparently underpinned by a mining boom that many of us knew was never going to last.

As a result of your irresponsible decision to manipulate our high street, we lost valuable car-parking space, and traffic speed increased exponentially with that hard-wired desire that compels motorists to make green lights from wherever they observe them. 

I am surprised that I need to tell you this given that you work for the RMS and I do not ... yet everyone else around the world appreciates that round-abouts are traffic calming and traffic lights are not.

The RMS failed us with the round-about v traffic lights debacle so as far as I am concerned there is no reason to trust you now with this latest New England Highway development proposal which if you have your way will plague our town for decades to come.

When you have read through the two blog posts posted online almost three years ago, just reflect upon this sentiment:

“Why should we trust you or the Upper Hunter Shire Council now?”