Access road is dangerous

Pearl Beach is a popular tourist destination and our local restaurant Pearls on the Beach was a very well-deserved winner of Restaurant of the Year this year.

Pearl Beach Dr, our only access road, first laid down in the Depression by manual labour, is dangerous and inadequate without proper widening and rebuilding.

This is attested to by council's advice that they cannot start work until the area above some sections of the road "has been made safe for the workmen to start working below".

All I can say is thank goodness the Peninsula News and the Express Advocate continue to air the situation regarding council's neglect of this and other road areas.

The problems are not limited to the Peninsula and Somersby-West Gosford: The Wiseman's Ferry Rd, through Popran National Park and through to Gunderman, is in a parlous state also.

And where is our self-styled "road warrior" Cr Doyle?

He has been decidedly silent in our local struggles over the last four years.

And Cr Drake advises Peninsula News on August 18, that he is "shocked to learn that council spend as little as $1.5 million on roads for the whole of the Gosford region".

Where was Cr Drake when annual budgets were being submitted?

Or when we repeatedly sought on-site councillor inspections of our roads?

In the same edition of Peninsula News, John Cragg announced, in response to the article in the Peninsula News on Pearl Beach Dr, that necessary works would cost in excess of $1million and "the priority list would allow council to begin work on Pearl Beach Dr towards the end of the year, once council finds a suitable tenderer for the project".

No doubt the belated but proper geotechnical assessments on our roads and news of collapses at Somersby, Kendall's Rock, Staples Lookout, Gunderman and Bulls Hill, amongst others, has brought home these road issues at last to our councillors and to council's senior managers.

After more pictorial coverage in the recent Express Advocate on the state of Pearl Beach Dr, again identifying the extent of residents concerns at council's failure to act, we now find the progress association and the community is advised that road works will start in "two weeks time".

Funny that the starting date has been revised again, so close to council elections.

Or is it?

When will the full project to properly rebuild the road come on schedule?

We are told proper management of Pearl Beach Dr will cost about $3 million.

How is it to be funded?

We must ask, where has our money gone?

Kay Williams, Pearl Beach