By Dominique Tassell
A Warwick resident has slammed the council, saying it has failed to properly fix roads next to her home.
After reporting issues with a road next to her property to council, works were carried out that Wendy says made the problem worse.
Wendy has owned her property on Fitzroy Street since 2016.
While Wendy’s property is in a flood zone, it only had problems with flooding this year.
Wendy says she told council about the problems earlier this year, but they weren’t fixed so the next time it rained her paddock flooded.
While Wendy dealt with initial problems like one of her horses not wanting to come up through the water form the back paddock, she couldn’t have foreseen just how quickly things would spiral.
Wendy has been trying to sell part of her property, and had buyers lined up.
But once they saw the brand new pond she’d suddenly acquired, the sale fell through.
She says she also can’t put in crops due to the water issues.
Wendy works part time as a teacher, and is worried about paying her rates when the problem with water flow has effectively ruined most of her income streams in one fell swoop.
She says she had to withdraw super to get by, something she didn’t want to do.
Wendy says the problem was initially caused by hoons coming down the road.
A small divot turned into an issue when irresponsible local drivers came tearing down the unsealed road.
Wendy told council of the problem and someone was sent out to fix it, but she says they ended up making it worse.
She says she tried to tell them when she saw the problem forming as they were working.
Wendy also takes issue with the rates she pays to council.
She says it seems unfair to not have kerbs and guttering and pay the same rates as residents who do have those things.
A council spokesperson stated that “council staff are working with the owner … to resolve a road drainage issue. This property also has frontage on to [another street].”
“Some works have been undertaken to resolve the drainage issue and this work has fixed 80 per cent of the issue.
“The recent spate of weekly wet weather combined with black soil in the area has prevented council from completing works.
“Council staff provided the resident with an update (on 28 July).
“Until this area dries out, it will not be possible to fix this issue.”
