RESIDENTS of one stretch of Autumn Street can now enjoy a brisk walk on a new section of concrete footpath, but inevitably there will be residents elsewhere stepping out far more cautiously on cracked, uneven footpaths or along nature strips with no footpath at all.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The council is to be congratulated for the footpath work underway or on the list to be done, however, there will be residents wanting far more money allocated for this work in the next budget.
They will be residents not fortunate enough to live on the streets earmarked for work this time round. For the most part it is a case of council staff looking at the footpath and cycle way network right across the city (or lack of it) and prioritising construction and maintenance.
It is not the most inspiring of work a council undertakes, and can be overlooked in favour of projects like the museum, which we will see rising from the site of the old visitor information centre very soon, but it needs to done.
It is also an amenity that rates highly with ratepayers whenever the council or this newspaper ask them about their priorities.
If a city does not keep up with maintaining footpaths and laying new ones in areas without them, you eventually find yourself in the situation Orange finds itself now - scores of footpaths right across town dotted with the yellow paint of a maintenance job and many streets with no footpaths at all.
The speed of the work in a block of Autumn Street over the last week demonstrate how quickly a crumbling tar path can be scooped out and replaced with a concrete pour, the difficult bit is deciding what streets to do and what other work may have to forego funding.
The explosion of yellow paint on our paths has got many people talking. The message to councillors for the next budget is surely step up the work, you are heading in the right general direction.
