The burnout blackhole – Council leadership, negligence or simply doesn’t care? You be the judge!

By bobreid, 11 November, 2024
Rant

Once again we have had another major burnout event at the North Arm Cove entrance at Gooreengi Rd – this happened last Saturday (9/11) night and it has left bits of burnt and shredded rubber and wire all over the intersection. This is a major safety hazard for North Arm Cove and Carrington residents and all road users. There are no road markings left and in poor weather conditions motorists could have trouble seeing where they should be, risking a collision with another vehicle or running off the road. The bits of wire could cause a crash from punctures or wire getting wrapped around suspension.

The road surface has been severely damaged and could result in vehicles skidding in wet weather.

Burnout events also can cause a lot of distress and anxiety for residents and motorists having to drive through them to get home. Many residents have reported feeling frightened and intimidated when trying to drive through them.

This is both a police and Council matter. The police can take action when they catch the burnout hoons, but they have to know when the burnouts are happening be there at the same time. This can be very difficult especially when the events happen sporadically and the hoons put lookouts at each end of Gooreengi Rd to warn their hoon mates of the police coming.

The greater responsibility to stop the burnouts lies with MidCoast Council which is responsible for this road. The big problem is the intersection is wide and flat, is out of the way and there are no houses nearby – a great spot for doing burnouts. It used to be part of the old Pacific Highway.

I was hoping that after the tragedy in March this year when a burnout went badly wrong and a car hit a 20 year old woman and a 14 year old girl who received serious injuries and were rushed to hospital, that Council would finally do something and modify the intersection to make it unsuitable for burnouts – but I was wrong, Council seems to be just ignoring the problem and doing nothing.

We have been asking Council to do something about this since August 2023 – but so far our requests have fallen on deaf ears and ended up in a Council black hole!

In the last year alone we have lodged a Council report and request form, spoken to and written a number of letters to the Director of Infrastructure and Engineering, and even resorted to writing to the General Manager, all to no avail!

We have repeatedly asked Council to put in temporary solutions in the interim until a permanent fix can be implemented; we have asked Council to reinstate the obliterated road markings; we asked Council to tell us what’s planned so I could inform our community at the May and October NACCAi meetings, but all we get is a black hole – requests go into the black hole and don’t come out.

The most recent request was on 18 October when I wrote to the General Manager, including the following:

Burnouts are still happening periodically now, with burnout debris being left all over the intersection. To date nothing has been done by Council to prevent them, either temporarily or permanently. 

They are a serious safety issue, impacting on residents and road users. I am requesting that you get involved and get action taken to make the intersection unsuitable for burnouts and safe for road users. 

Since we have an association meeting on 9 November, I would appreciate being advised before then on what Council intends to do about this safety issue, temporarily and permanently, so I can report it to our community at the meeting. 

Thank you for considering this request, I look forward to hearing back from you.”

This request was accompanied with two files with copies of correspondence and recent drone photos of the intersection showing the burnout mess. These are attached to this post and can be downloaded if you would like to read them.

On 23 October I received the following response from the General Manager’s PA: 

“On behalf of the General Manager, I acknowledge receipt of your correspondence dated 18 October 2024. Adrian is following up with the relevant staff and will respond shortly. Should you have any further questions or concerns prior to the matter being finalised, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

A copy of my 18 October request and the 23 October response are also attached to this post and can be downloaded.

There has been no response since then, I was not able to tell our community anything at our NACCAi meeting two days ago except once again Council has ignored our request – the burnout blackhole must be very strong, it sucks up requests and nothing ever comes out!

Council has five community values that “describe what is important to us and how we would like to live as a community”. One of these is leadership, expressed as “We value strong leadership and shared vision”.

 Council does do some good things, and Council has some very good staff working for it, particularly in the parks and drainage areas. Our North Arm Cove community has benefited from them with good support for projects such as drainage upgrades and Yallarwah Park and Heros Beach.

But in implementing a solution to the burnout issue, so far Council’s management has been an abysmal failure. Nothing has been done since we first contacted Council 15 months ago, and despite repeated requests we have no idea if Council is going to do anything at all!

These burnouts are a serious safety issue – for residents and motorists, for the burnout hoons and bystanders, for our environment, and they pose a major fire risk in dry weather. I would hate to see our surrounds and our village burnt out from a fire started by a burnout!

So, what do you think – is this an example of Council’s strong leadership, or is it negligence, or is it simply that it doesn’t really care about this problem and is going to ignore it, hoping it will go away?

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This issue now needs to go to the NSW Government Ombudsman who is obliged to investigate the Councils apparent lack of action . He/She can be contacted by phone ( his/ her staff ) or e mail . Details are on the net . Other option is to contact media but to keep our ?? good relations with council I would suggest the former at this stage. Peter Briscoe