The Gympie Shire Council, all the staff and workers must be congratulated for bringing the shire road network into a pristine condition. Obviously there are no more potholes to fill and all the road surfaces are smooth as a babies backside.
This has provide them with a bucket-full of cash, so much so, that the council can now squander money on foolhardy experiments with traffic flow.
They must be the only shire council in the entire world to be in such a financial situation that they can now waste the rate-payer’s hard earned money on a set of traffic lights at the railway station underpass.
Myself, I would rather have had a reduction in my rates, than to see it wasted in this manner.
Surely the current elected councillors must remember the previous council which squandered the rate money on fool-hardy experiments which left the council coffers in tatters.
Are they now trying to do the same?
We the ratepayers do not wish to see our council financial resources reduced the level of penury that has brought about the tightening of every-ones’ belt once again.
The cost of living is made difficult enough by the national and state governments.
One must ask why this foolhardy extravagance is required.
How has the Council come to make this decision, what pressure was applied and by whom?
Have they even considered the traffic congestion this will generate?
I am sure the businesses that going to be affected will have something to say?
I have a hypothesis whereby, the country areas have now become very attractive to our city cousins.
Ergo they are moving out of the city and Gympie is receiving a fair share of these green nomads.
Sadly, their driving behavior, manners and level of patience are of such a low level they cannot drive anywhere without being guided by traffic lights.
If this being the case my suggestion to them is, go back to the city and take your faster lifestyle with you.
We have more patience, prefer a slower pace and with better driving manners we can get around without getting angry and frustrated.
I offer a suggestion to the council which will be far cheaper, not require electricity to operate, and will have a lifetime operational timescale of probably 50 years.
It is very simple.
I know it will work because the Council has already trialed part of the system.
It requires a couple of no right turn signs, and a sign to be placed at the Station Road roundabout saying no right turn at Tozer Road.
A small traffic island to be constructed on Railway Road at the Tozer Road intersection.
The entrance to Lady Mary Terrance from Mellor Street be closed off, and an exit from Lady Mary Terrace into Mellor Street be reopened.
The last option would offer the cafe parking on both sides of the road as the traffic flow will be only in one direction.
I understand this is not an earth-shattering idea in the grand scheme of things but I am sure the residents and ratepayers of the Gympie shire would certainly recognise and vote for a simple, more functional and more cost-effective change to the traffic flow in this area.
I will be very interested to see if council has the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the un-elected council staff and demand a rethink of this very expensive idea.
They should also be asking their ‘traffic engineer’ why he did not offer this more simple alternative to this imaginary problem.
L. Pethick,
Gympie
