Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Rural resident Clare Haynes is calling on the Litchfield Council to put in some footpaths along Bees Creek Road to improve safety after a couple were hit by a car killing their dogs

Transcript

Rural resident Clare Haynes is calling on the Litchfield Council to put in some footpaths along Bees Creek Road to improve safety after a couple were hit by a car killing their dogs · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now onto a very different topic, and it is around
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  Speaker 1: footpaths in bees Creek. In the Bees Creek area, we
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  Speaker 1: know that rural residents are ramping up their calls for
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  Speaker 1: footpaths around the bees Creek Road area. It comes after
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  Speaker 1: we know that a young boy was struck by a
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  Speaker 1: car after getting off of bus last year, and also
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  Speaker 1: a woman and a man hit while walking their dogs
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  Speaker 1: last month. Now the woman was seriously injured and their
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  Speaker 1: two dogs died at the scene. Joining me on the
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  Speaker 1: line right now is a Bee's Creek resident, Claire Haynes.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Claire, good morning, how are you?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, really good, Thank you so much for your time
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  Speaker 1: this morning, Claire.
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  Speaker 2: I understand that there are quite a few.
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  Speaker 1: People that live out in the bees Creek area, particularly
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  Speaker 1: around bees Creek Road, that are really keen to have
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  Speaker 1: some footpaths put in because you've got some fears really
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  Speaker 1: around safety.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, especially after these two horrible incidents have occurred
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  Speaker 3: quite recently. Yeah, absolutely, exactly what.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly a resident sort of came to see happened.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I suppose a footpath along the road we're somewhere
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  Speaker 3: safe to walk basically and ride a bike would be great,
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  Speaker 3: especially you know, for walking your dogs and for kids
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  Speaker 3: particularly going along the road to get to school, like
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  Speaker 3: it is a very long road. It's about eight kilometers
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  Speaker 3: long from the highway down towards the Elizabeth River, so
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  Speaker 3: you know, we're not expecting miracles and all the way along.
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  Speaker 3: And I do understand that, you know, it would be
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  Speaker 3: a costly exercise for the council because there are quite
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  Speaker 3: big culverts and it is pretty uneven surfaces, but just
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  Speaker 3: somewhere safe for people to be able to exercise, get
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  Speaker 3: to and from places, all that kind of thing would
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  Speaker 3: be great.
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  Speaker 1: So, Claire, is it something that you've raised with counsel
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  Speaker 1: at this point in time, because my understanding is that
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  Speaker 1: there's quite the push for this on social media at
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  Speaker 1: the moment, plenty of residents saying that they do want
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  Speaker 1: to see a footpaths.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, there is definitely a big conversation off the
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  Speaker 3: back of what's happened on social media, and yeah, I
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  Speaker 3: strongly urge people to take it to council because they
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  Speaker 3: don't know necessarily everything that's going on on Facebook or
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  Speaker 3: you know, whichever platform, so I took it to them.
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  Speaker 3: You can go on the liter Field Council website and
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  Speaker 3: there's a public question page. So I did take it
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  Speaker 3: to or initially I took it to Keijia Puic who's
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  Speaker 3: our local member, and then she directed me towards our
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  Speaker 3: local counselor, and then I emailed her and she encouraged
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  Speaker 3: me to do a public question, which was really great. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: race that probably almost a year ago now, would have
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  Speaker 3: been dry season last year. And yeah, I didn't really
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  Speaker 3: hear too much after that, just that that noted my question.
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  Speaker 3: But I did contact them again the day this incident
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  Speaker 3: occurred with the couple walking their dogs, and it did
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  Speaker 3: bring it to light again. But really, you know, we
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  Speaker 3: shouldn't have to have all these awful incidents happened for
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  Speaker 3: it to be you know, pushed even Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so so by the sounds of it, there's not
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  Speaker 1: been a huge amount of of sort of feedback from
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  Speaker 1: the from the council following on from you raising it
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  Speaker 1: with them.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, well, thankfully the day that that incident happened, I
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  Speaker 3: did hear back from the council and she was saying, yes,
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  Speaker 3: you know, it is on the you know, pretty close
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  Speaker 3: to the forefront of her mind. But yeah, I suppose
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  Speaker 3: it's just convincing the rest of the council that it
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  Speaker 3: is a priority, and yeah, I totally understand with counsel.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it comes down to money, but I really
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  Speaker 3: think that it is a priority and it is time
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  Speaker 3: for this to be pushed in further.
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  Speaker 2: And Claire, do you reckon that.
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  Speaker 1: We've got a bit of a situation though as well
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  Speaker 1: at the moment where there are a lot more families
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  Speaker 1: moving out to the rural area. So it does actually
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  Speaker 1: mean that you've got kids that are wanting to ride
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  Speaker 1: their bikes, go for a walk, that kind of thing,
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  Speaker 1: and it is a little bit dangerous when there's not
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  Speaker 1: a safe place for them to walk.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the demographic of the rural area
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  Speaker 3: is changing big time. You know, so many people are
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  Speaker 3: moving out and you know, people going for that rural lifestyle.
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  Speaker 3: And I even put a Facebook post up a couple
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  Speaker 3: of years ago when we first moved up. We've been
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  Speaker 3: in the rural area for three years now, yep, and
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  Speaker 3: I put a post up and I did get a
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  Speaker 3: fair bit of backlash. There was some young families like, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: for sure, we would love footpaths, and then I was
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  Speaker 3: getting you know, the opposite of you know, a lot
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  Speaker 3: of keeper rule will go back to the Northern Suburbs
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  Speaker 3: kind of rhetoric as well. So yeah, like not you
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  Speaker 3: know everyone wants, but I think, you know, moving forward,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we do need to have a safe place
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  Speaker 3: to be able to exercise.
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  Speaker 1: And do you reckon like would footpads be enough or
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  Speaker 1: do you think that there needs to be some extra
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  Speaker 1: signage as well?
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  Speaker 2: You know, what are your thoughts on that?
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  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, signage could help. I suppose you know, people
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  Speaker 3: need to slow down down beef Peak roads. It is
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  Speaker 3: an eighty k zone and yeah, definitely, yeah, you do
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  Speaker 3: witness people going above that. Yeah, and yeah, like yeah,
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  Speaker 3: science could definitely help, especially near bus stops and things
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  Speaker 3: like that. Yeah, it's a tricky one really, but yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I think there's no space on the shoulder of the
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  Speaker 3: road for people to be so yeah, whether the council
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  Speaker 3: can kind of create a bit more space there or
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  Speaker 3: you know, better signage about the road way, yeah, whatever
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  Speaker 3: can make it safer.
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  Speaker 2: Well.
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  Speaker 1: And look, I understand that these kinds of things cost
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  Speaker 1: money one hundred get that. But also I understand I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you guys are paying your rates out there, aren't you.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, we pay very similar like almost as much
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  Speaker 3: as what we pay in town, and we get a
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  Speaker 3: lot less for that, yeah, right, to be honest, Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: we don't have any postal service or rubbish collection. There's
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  Speaker 3: you know, we get free access to the tip, but
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  Speaker 3: we have to bring it there ourselves. And the quality
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  Speaker 3: of the roads is a lot less. Like I was
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  Speaker 3: riding my bike a bit when we first moved out there,
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  Speaker 3: but the road surface is so rough that it's kind
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  Speaker 3: of just shakes you along a bit. So have definitely
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  Speaker 3: reduced my amount of cycling, which yeah, I totally understand.
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  Speaker 3: You know, living in a real area. You're out there
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  Speaker 3: to be in the bush, and you know, out there
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  Speaker 3: for luxury.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, but there would be good.
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  Speaker 3: To have more recreational spaces across the board. Yeah, well
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  Speaker 3: for too much.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the thing. And you know, I don't think
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  Speaker 2: you are. Look, I'm a mum with little kids.
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  Speaker 1: And so you know, I kind of think to myself,
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  Speaker 1: I would imagine if I lived out that way, that
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  Speaker 1: if the kids are riding bikes and that kind of thing,
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  Speaker 1: that you would want to make sure that there was
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  Speaker 1: somewhere safe that they could do so. But I also
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  Speaker 1: know that there are a lot of families out in
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  Speaker 1: the rural area. All you've got to do is is,
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  Speaker 1: you know, go to any of the sports that are
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  Speaker 1: being played out there in terms of you know, being
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  Speaker 1: played out at Fred's Pass, and you can see just
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  Speaker 1: how many families do live out in.
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  Speaker 2: The rural area.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, Yo is great and I love that
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  Speaker 3: there are a lot of families out that way. But yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I suppose it's just a changing demographic that the council
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  Speaker 3: needs to move along with.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Claire, I really appreciate you having a chat with us,
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  Speaker 1: and we might try and get in contact with the
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  Speaker 1: counselor as well, just to find out a bit more because,
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  Speaker 1: look for me as well, I do think the fact
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  Speaker 1: that there has been those very serious incidents it does
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  Speaker 1: make a question whether there does need to be a
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  Speaker 1: bit of work. So we'll get in contact with the
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  Speaker 1: counsel and we'll see how we go see what we
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  Speaker 1: can find out.
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  Speaker 3: Great. Thank you so much, Katie.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Claire, I appreciate your time.