Consideration for Rate Payers?

I write on behalf of the Body Corporate, McLeod Court, CTS1505, 171-179 McLeod Street, Cairns North and, in the first instance, address this communication directly to Cairns Regional Council.  On 9 August, 2012, as the result of a request by us through our Body Corporate Manager TcmStrata, we received email from our Managers stating the following :-

"I have just received a call from Graham at the Cairns Regional Council and they have advised me that your request for the bitumen to the driveway entrance area has been added to their list of works to do.
They are hoping to have it done by the start of this year's wet season, but he said that the Council will definitely have it done soon.
However, he said that they wont be laying bitumen to the whole shoulder, just the area in front of the entrance to McLeod Court."

Needless to say, we were elated that the Council had seen fit to act so quickly on a very minor request from a property where owners have been paying rates for 3 decades already.  Those hope were dashed, however, by an email from Gordon Robb, Project Officer, Infrastructure Management at Cairns Regional Council, dated 20 August.  I probably cannot repeat the contents of that email verbatim, as that might be interpreted as containing "privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the intended addressee(s)".

However, it basically said we must either wait until the next financial year, or enter a 50% cost sharing arrangement with the Council.  Neither of these options is acceptable to us because, in the first place - and as already stated - we have been paying ever-increasing council rates for 30 years without having seen one single improvement at this end of the block in McLeod Street.  We find the offer of a cost-sharing deal to be ridiculous because, if Council can find 50% of a very small cost, surely you can find the other 50% of a very small total cost - after all, this isn't a new Performing Arts Centre which we will, in all likelihood, never use.

We are not even asking for the whole block to be sealed, only the area encompassing the vehicular access to the property.  Here are a few photos to illustrate the situation :-

Above is the area in question and you will note that the bitumen seal ends immediately before our driveway.  Below is another view of the driveway area, showing how neatly the bitumen ends at the alignment of our property - note also the potholes and, worse, the jagged edge of the road which all of our residents' vehicles must negotiate.

Below is a view from our driveway access to the end of the block, where Charles Street intersects McLeod Street.  We are NOT asking for this area to receive any special attention from Council, even though it would make a fitting end to the entire block between Grove and Charles streets, so that it doesn't look like the poor end of town.  A view reinforced by the fact that all the rest of the block has bitumen seal.

Below is a view of bitumen seal that exists adjacent to the Charles Street intersection.  As none of the Body Corporate members have ever seen the original plans for construction of this property, we can only guess as to the reason why the Council provided this as the vehicular access to the property. My guess would be that it was a blunder made many years ago - either by the Council or the builder, or perhaps both.  In any event, it serves no purpose and is of no use to our residents' vehicles.

I know that many people, myself included, voted the previous Mayor out of office because we saw that the so-called Cairns Entertainment Precinct as a waste of money that would not serve the majority of people who pay rates in the Cairns Regional Council area.  Many people that I speak to have said that, if the Council really wanted to do something for the benefit of the majority of the people they serve, making the roads better would be a good start.

We, at McLeod Court, aren't asking for even that much.  All we want is to avoid costly repairs to our vehicles, due to jagged street bitumen edges and potholes that provide a most challenging obstacle course to our property.  As a counter proposal, can we send our vehicle repair bills to the Council?  We would probably accept THAT sort of offer.