People power, 4215 sign roads petition
Please act: Lisa Burge and her six year old daughter Sienna with roads petition organiser Margaret Denbrok and the many sheets of a signed petition calling for action to repair South Gippsland’s roads.
MORE than 4000 people have signed a petition calling on the Victorian Legislative Assembly to properly repair South Gippsland’s roads.
The petition began circulating across South Gippsland on February 5 and was wound up on Friday, February 22.
Organiser Margaret Denbrok of Leongatha was thrilled with the response.
She said she didn’t have to do any doorknocking to achieve the result.
All it took was around 20 clipboards and sheets of paper. Public anger did the rest.
Fellow agitator Lisa Burge, who spends half her life on the phone complaining to VicRoads, said she’s “blown away” by the number of signatures on the petition.
“It proves how many disgruntled road users there are. If the government doesn’t do something it shows how ignorant they are. Road safety is the most important thing.”
Speaking on Friday about a fatal accident at Foster North the previous day, Ms Burge said, “I think after yesterday’s road tragedy it reiterates how important this is.”
She said our roads are dangerous enough without the added burden of myriad craters and potholes.
Ms Denbrok, who does her own fair share of complaining to VicRoads, said she circulated the petition because she thought “somebody had to do something”.
“Everyone has been talking about the bad state of the roads but that doesn’t get them fixed.”
She has nine grandchildren and she’s constantly worried about family and friends – indeed anyone – coming to grief in a pothole.
Tired of hearing constantly about craters stretching the width of some roads, potholes, repairs that break up soon after they’ve been done and poor drainage, Ms Denbrok decided to act.
She and Ms Burge are hoping to personally hand the many signed petition sheets to Deputy Premier and Gippsland South MLA Peter Ryan.
Ms Denbrok said she wanted to thank those who had signed the petition and the businesses willing to have the clipboards on their counters.
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Posted by Simone Short on Feb 26 2013. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
