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Rialto Lane-Wreck

10/2/2016

5 Comments

 
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​Manly Council chose a weekend in the middle of summer to start upgrading works on Rialto Lane in the heart of Manly CBD. 

And they didn’t warn anyone - not affected shop owners, not the residents at Peninsula Apartments who couldn’t get their cars out of their own garage, and not Coles supermarket who had no access to their loading dock at one of the busiest weekends of the year!

The result was a traffic nightmare with Coles delivery trucks backing in and out of the narrow laneway at the same time as tourists and locals with small kids were crossing the lane behind them. 

“It was unbelievable,” said Peninsula resident Brian Fitzgerald, who spoke at Manly council meeting this week. 
“On Friday they just came along, blocked off the road and started work.  No one was notified at all.”

Mr Fitzgerald said that residents’ only notification of the work was a public notice on a wall near the laneway. The notice gave a council email as the contact point for more information, but when residents emailed they got no reply.  When they called the council, they were told no one knew about the project and they had to call the architect. They did, and were given some information, but not about when work would start on the site, or how they would be affected by it. This is despite the project being under Manly Council’s control, as part of their public works plan. 

Good For Manly Councillor Candy Bingham used the Rialto experience to call for a review of the council’s notification and  communication processes, in a motion at the meeting. 

“We do excellent work with our civic works projects,” Cr Bingham said. “But we let ourselves down with the communication side, time and time again.

“Rialto Lane is not an isolated incident," she said. "There’s LM Graham Reserve, Forty Baskets Beach, Kenneth Road…  It keeps happening. 

​“People are not against civic works. They just want to know in advance so they can prepare and work around it.  And just telling them work will go ahead at some point is not good enough. We need to tell them when it’s starting, and what exactly is going to happen. Clearly this was not done for Rialto Lane.”

Major Jean Hay said that although things could have handled better in this case, responsible officer Deputy GM Beth Lawson was on leave at the time work started on Friday Jan 8.  She said that when Ms Lawson returned to work the following Tuesday she immediately contacted affected businesses and residents, and apologised for any problems. 

Cr Hay denied there was a systemic problem with the council’s communication processes. 

But the motion to hold an internal review of the council’s communication procedures was eventually passed, with a report to be brought back to councillors on how the process can be improved. 

5 Comments
Lisle
11/2/2016 08:24:00 am

Please note that the Manly Daily refused to print the story about the chaos of the Rialto Lane Upgrade. It wasn't "newsworthy" was the comment, but I noted three articles from Manly Council on the day the story should have appeared
More later. I;m off to a Peninsula meeting where the No. 1 item will be the Rialto Lane Upgrade. .

Reply
Lisle
11/2/2016 01:00:08 pm

The Rialto Lane Upgrade is a warning to the Manly Community as to how their council manages public works.
The Mayor makes the excuse that Beth Lawson was on holidays at the time it commenced. Was Ms Lawson on holidays on September 12 when we first sent emails to Manly Council requesting information?
The ramifications for Manly Council with this Upgrade are very serious. How different it could have been had the Peninsula been consulted instead of pretending we do not exist.
How did Manly Council's contractors jackhammer through the Peninsula building slab and into the Council carpark? Was there an engineer's report before hand. Manly Council in fact trespassed on the Peninsula property. We are awaiting our Engineer's report, but the damage done will incur Manly Council in substantial costs.
At our meeting this morning we discussed the proposed new Loading Zone on the Peninsula side of Rialto Lane. This is said to be in front of louvres which enable fresh air to be taken in for the Residential carpark and also the Council Carpark. Did Manly Council ever wonder why they were there? Now they plan to have trucks parked there. This is also directly under Peninsula residents' bedroom windows.
We don't know if this is true, because we have still seen no documentation. You see, it's all a big secret! It's called lack of transparency.

Reply
Lisle
12/2/2016 09:32:01 am

It is disappointing that the Manly Daily did not report Councillor Bingham's Notice of Motion. Instead the Manly Daily tried to divert attention with its article "Bid to liven up laneways" under the Manly2015 Plan.
It is important to note that the Rialto Lane Upgrade was never mentioned in Manly2015.

Paul Gilet
11/2/2016 10:01:09 am

Hi Cathy,
Thanks for the great work in keeping us informed. If the council notified how and when something was going to start they may get some constructive feedback. I have found that asking does not seem to help for the response usually seems to be a carefully crafted letter that does not answer the main point but answers something else.
Cheers

Paul

Reply
Lisle link
16/2/2016 04:05:44 pm

It is important to record that the Manly Daily did in fact respond to Councillor Bingham's Notice of Motion in today, Tuesday's Manly Daily.
Alison Marks has done a fine job in reporting the Council Meeting which was reinforced by a letter to the editor who was not at all impressed with what went on.
We await our engineer's report on the damage to the Peninsula Building which will be a further cost to Manly Council.
Incidentally we still have no documentation.

Reply



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    Candy Bingham, Manly Ward Councillor on Northern Beaches Council posts what's making news and issues relevant to Manly on this blog. 

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