Hello from a resident of the Clifton Springs area. I bought my property late last year and have moved from Melbourne. The first thought that occurred to me was …. where are the footpaths? There was not even one for access to the little playground at the end of the street forcing people with prams onto the road. I am a bit wobbly on my feet from a past broken ankle so find walking on grass not easy for getting to the bus stop or to go around the block. So, I investigated the council rules for getting a footpath. You have to canvass every house and get all to agree to getting one and to having our house rates increased for its maintenance. Well, I could see little success in achieving that.
Meanwhile, I wanted to create a Garden for Wildlife planting area on my nature strip. There are Greater Geelong planning guidelines for that plus having to register the garden. Part of those rules included leaving a space for a future footpath. I received advice from the council planning department that gravel could be used instead of grass “footpath” gap. So, I planted my nature strip using plants from the Bellarine Indigenous plant nursery. I got a landscaper to build the footpath for me. I even now have a little space for my bins. The new footpath is now happily being used by the postie and school kids. All we need now is a few more houses to do it to reach the playground or the other way up to Clifton Springs Road and the bus stop. I encourage all to make both your own garden in your nature strip and look forward to when there are connecting footpaths to making walking to places easier.
Wendy Cox
The Footpaths for Health group continues to meet, monthly, after 3 years of meeting. We believe it is getting closer to City of Greater Geelong having an engagement with our community, to discuss how our community would like to see footpaths. I am hoping that many people will participate in this engagement and we are hoping that you consider footpaths to be an essential part of infrastructure for our community.
We hope that over the last 3 years, we have published sufficient reasons for everyone to support this initiative if possible.
Anne Brackley
