Concerned residents of Waverley Parade can breathe a sigh of relief as a proposed partial road closure which would block their access to Range Road was scrapped by councillors at the December 9 meeting.
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More than 115 submissions were received against the proposed partial road closure by concerned residents. Reasons included traffic concerns, volume of vehicle movements on the road, car parking and pedestrian access, and bushfire safety concerns.
More than 18 submissions were made in support of the proposed road closure, with the safety of Frensham students as the main concern.
Ms Maree Tynan addressed council against the recommendation.
"Firstly, I wish to remind you that 87 per cent of the submissions objected to the proposal and only 13 per cent supported it," she said.
"This is a growing area, medium-density infill is thriving and the trend is gaining pace. In contrast, Frensham's enrollments have averaged at 300 for the past 50 years.
"We are not downplaying the need for all students, indeed everyone, to be safe when crossing the roads. Frensham and council are well aware that we strongly support the implementation of effective traffic calming measures. Traffic calming measures work.
"The only reason given to this closure is student safety on the crossing. Frensham has around 300 young ladies who are more than capable of crossing the roads."
Ms Tynan said she had been assured the partial closure of Waverley Parade and the acquisition of land for the new roundabout was to be treated as two separate matters but was confused as to why the world "exchange" had appeared three times in council papers.
"We wish to make it absolutely clear that we support the upgrade of the bridge and roundabout and urge council to proceed with the compulsory acquisition protocols," she said.
"It is of some concern that some council officers and councillors are making some assumptions and possible decisions on this matter without the experiential and historical knowledge some of us have in this matter.
"Fire risks cannot be ignored. Frensham and Waverley Parade are recognised as bushfire prone areas. The 1939 bushfires had a devastating impact on our area, buildings were destroyed in Waverley Parade and in Frensham. In 2002, homes were destroyed in Willowvale and many on the edge of Mittagong were saved by waterbombing. The highway was closed. In 2019/2020 the fire came perilously close to Mittagong.
"Waverley Parade must remain a public road open at all times for access to and from Range Road and for the traffic flow in the area."
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Ms Julie Gillick addressed council in support of the recommendation.
"[Frensham] now has 360 students and five classrooms across the road at Sturt," she said.
"The reason we spoke to the council in 2004 was because we knew where we were heading with our usage and facilities.
"Since the exhibition period commenced, we have met with neighbours and council to consider our response to community concerns. Through the consultation process, I hope council can see that we are focused on what the school can do to minimise the impact on our neighbours with what is essential to the school; cars and student crossings separated by the inroad closure.
Ms Gillick said the partial road closure did not change emergency vehicle access, current street parking or pedestrian access.
"We are happy to retain a formal road and vehicle access for emergency vehicles, public utility and council, to retain the use of close road area for school parking so not to add to parking on adjacent streets, implement traffic plans as required and implement full pedestrian access to Range Road through to Oxford Street," she said.
"Currently ever weekday between 7:30 am to 9 pm there are up to 1000 crossings per day. As we have conferred with council, student crossings between Frensham and Sturt will only increase in years to come.
"Safety around school experts have made it very clear that partial road closures implemented by council will provide certainty for students and drivers. That's not achievable with the type of traffic calming that has been mentioned by neighbours.
"For Frensham, the partial road closure of Waverley Parade is to achieve one goal. Council's endorsement of the proposal would secure student safety. Frensham has always worked with the community and with the council to achieve mutually positive outcomes and we hope that this project is no exception."
Deputy mayor Graham Andrews put the recommendation to approve the proposed partial closure of Waverley Road, Mittagong forward.
"This is a difficult one," he said.
"As it is shown in the motion, the majority of the submissions objected to three main concerns in regards to the non-access of emergency vehicles, pedestrian access and parking. Many stated that there was no objection to the road closure providing pedestrian access was maintained. The gist of the proposal clearly satisfies the three main reasons for the proposed closure."
Councillor Graham McLaughlin spoke against the recommendation.
"We heard from a resident, Ms Maree Tynan and she explained quite succinctly with regard to her concerns. We aren't talking about primary school kids, we are talking about high school ladies that cross roads in town," he said.
"I really think this flies in the face of the community. The community have spoken loud and clear on this one; that they absolutely oppose this. School's don't pay rates, the don't pay rates like the ratepayers. We've seen this council or council's before close off streets to accommodate the school in the past such as Stanley Street which is fenced off now.
"I think this is a big ask to ask the community to close this road off. We heard about the concerns regarding access and fires. We are talking about young ladies that are quite capable of crossing the road which has a 50 km speed limit zone."
Councillor Ken Halstead said he could not believe the council would consider closing the road that was fundamental to the local road network in Mittagong.
"Anybody that has been up there would understand the need for this road. It's not like a minor road in the back part of a locality. This is well used every day of the week by a lot of people. There is no way this should be done," he said.
"There is no way this should be closed. In terms of what can happen from a point of view as a structure and from a traffic committee, there could be an angled slow way which enables traffic to be reduced in speed.
"There's a lot of common sense methods that can be looked at by the Traffic Committee."
The motion was lost.
Cr Halstead put forward a foreshadowed motion to refuse to the proposed closure, to implement local area traffic management devices to facilitate the safe movement of students of the Frensham School and to refer the matter to the Local Traffic Committee and Finance committee.
Councillors voted unanimously in favour of the foreshadowed motion which passed.
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Vera Demertzis
Journalist at the Southern Highland News covering council yarns and community news. Got a tip or a story to tell? Email vera.demertzis@southernhighlandnews.com.au or call on 0427 250 908.
Journalist at the Southern Highland News covering council yarns and community news. Got a tip or a story to tell? Email vera.demertzis@southernhighlandnews.com.au or call on 0427 250 908.
