A COUNCIL plan to pull funds from a road project and direct them to another has drawn the ire of effected residents and a minority of councillors.
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At council’s June meeting councillors opted to pull $33,000 earmarked by the director of engineering services for gravel re-sheeting along Leslie Creek Road.
Instead, they voted to transfer the funds to work on Paddy’s Flat and Hootens roads.
Cr Blair Maxwell said he’d been contacted by horticulture businesses in the area who said their produce was being damaged by the poor road quality.
Six councillors backed Cr Maxwell’s motion to have the funds transferred.
This decision led councillors Brian Murray, Don Forbes and Michael Petrie to submit a notice of rescission at the July 22 council meeting.
Cr Murray said he was contacted by Leslie Creek residents aggrieved by council’s U-turn.
“I was reluctant to get involved. I advised them to get in touch with their respective councillors (B Ward councillors Tom Peters and Blair Maxwell).
“They told me that ‘they didn’t trust those councillors’,” Cr Murray said.
Council are in danger of setting precedent Cr Murray argues and said the change could open them up for questions of “graft and corruption”.
“Others might be concerned if they speak out that they’ll have their money taken from their road too.
“Of course I want what is best for the community but I also want those other people served too,” he said.
Cr Petrie supported Cr Murray’s claims.
“They might be worried if they (Leslie Creek residents) don’t get that money now they won’t get it for another 10-years.
“If the roads are that bad then get Thomas George (Member for Lismore) to get a grant,” Cr Petrie said.
Of the initial $33,000, $16,000 has gone to Hootens Rd while the remaining amount will be used to repair Paddy’s Flat Rd at a cost of $53,000.
A parallel was drawn between Tenterfield’s opportunity with its current horticulture industry and that of Stanthorpe’s back in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
“Do we want to be ‘open for business’? Cr Leahy said.
“I felt this was more important,” she said.
Residents of Leslie Creek Rd argue that such a decision should have been left to someone else.
“I’m dead against shifting money from one to the other,” Cliff Lavender said.
Despite the fact Mr Lavender lives on Paddy’s Flat Rd he said the money should have been left alone.
“Once you start taking it away it’s going to cost three, four, five time more when they get to it.
“For the people who live there it’s just not fair,” he said.
