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| Google Earth snapshot, March 2023 Click on image to enlarge |
ECHO, 18 April 2023:
I moved to the Byron Shire in 1986, the year this great little paper started expressing the views of our community. I remember back then the complaints about the state of our roads… It’s like this paralysing brain fog descends at the mere mention of our roads, and this has now been going on for decades. Throw in a couple of ‘once in a lifetime weather events’ and now we’ve got 200 road projects in waiting. Is mine one of them?
Yankee Creek Road is only 1.4 kilometres and is a dead end (in more ways than one). Last Monday night I had to tow my friends out after they tried to avoid the craters.
So far this year four different friends have said they cannot visit me anymore because they don’t feel confident negotiating the road.
There are now four sections where you have to drive offroad to avoid the potholes and craters that remain unfixed in the road.
It was really bad before the 28 February and 30 March 2022 floods, but now it’s atrocious.
The repair work to my car last week cost me $1,570; that entailed replacing the strut mounts, shock absorbers, bump stop boot kits, and of course I’m constantly visiting my mates down at Tyre Power!
So, I thought I should wave my feeble hand in the air, and I wrote to the Mayor and all councillors with photos and a detailed description of how bad things are. I did get a response from Sarah Ndiaye and Duncan Dey that the matter had been forwarded on to Byron Shire Council (BSC) staff, but no other confirmation.
Like Navaya Ellis (Echo, 29 March) I would like questions answered. These are: when will someone come and take a look at Yankee Creek Road? What classifies a ‘bad’ road versus a ‘dangerous’ one? What designates a high priority? Is there anybody out there? Yoohoo, drowning not waving!
Gosh, a courteous reply saying my letter had been received would be a good start.
I think I’m experiencing what I’ll coin FF: ‘futility fatigue’. It certainly took me out last year after nine months enduring the endless fob offs from insurance companies.
Yes, I have a beautiful new home, albeit, now a leaky one. Here, I have to thank Byron Council for giving me a ‘Completion Certificate’ when parts of my roof had no flashing – my insurance company sure loves you dudes.
Sorry, I digress… you see FF is insidious because there are so many other people with way worse war stories; I don’t have the right to winge and complain about insurances and roads when others are so much worse off.
Then FF inertia sets in and the paralysing brain fog returns, making any attempt for resolution and clarity feel like crawling across cut glass… best just give up, right?
Nup! Maybe we can generate some income to help BSC, perhaps a new reality TV show called Survivor on North Coast Roads, city dwellers can pay an exorbitant amount to be given four bald tyres and a road map of our worst roads; an experience of a life time! Spine tingling action with search and rescue at the ready.
Mishaela Simpkins, Mullum Creek
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