Byron Council has recommitted itself to the task of building a roundabout at Suffolk Park’s Clifford Street intersection, abandoning a government grant that it had secured to install traffic lights at the notorious blackspot.
But with the roundabout plan currently unfunded and potentially hindered by the presence of high-value vegetation, some have suggested it will be a ‘road to nowhere’.
The attempt to address the safety and traffic congestion issues at the junction of Clifford Street and Broken Head Road has been going on for decades, with Council exploring various options including a roundabout, traffic lights, and, most recently, a combination of a pedestrian crossing and refuges.
Pedestrian crossing rejected by TfNSW
Earlier this year the Council backflipped on plans to install traffic lights at the troubled spot following a loud and concerted community campaign against this.
When its attempt to change the conditions of a government grant which had been provided to install the lights was rejected by Transport for NSW (TfNSW), the Council faced a difficult choice.
It could either return to the traffic lights option or do nothing at the site until it could secure the funds and extra land needed to build a roundabout.
Roundabout options
At last week’s meeting it effectively chose the latter, developing a complex strategy contingent upon at least two sets of state government funding and sign-off from three separate bodies.
Moved by Councillor Jack Dods and seconded by Greens Councillor Elia Hauge, the plan saw Council formally withdraw from the traffic lights program.
It will now seek funding to produce concept plans for both a mini roundabout, and a standard roundabout.
If this funding is eventually found, and the designs then completed, they will go to Council’s place planning team, its Transport and Infrastructure Advisory Committee, and finally TfNSW to make sure that all agree on the plans.
Once this is eventually completed, and another round of community consultation undertaken, the Council will seek further funding to actually deliver the project.
A separate report that Council has commissioned
However, this entire set of steps is contingent upon a separate report that Council has commissioned which will explore whether the roundabout option is even feasible, given that it may require clearing part of a Council reserve that includes vegetation of high ecological value.
‘The point is to try and get a plan for a roundabout, whether it’s a mini roundabout, a standard roundabout, or perhaps a compact roundabout…’ said Cr Dods, the Council’s deputy mayor.
‘[Then we have a plan] on the books that has been well thought out, well designed, with the right inputs put into the design process.’
‘Then we as a Council can put that on the shelf and our wonderful grants officer can fire that design at as many grants as she feels it may be suitable for.’
Kicking the can down the road?
But Labor councillor Asren Pugh said he was concerned that Council was simply kicking the intersection issue down the road for a future Council to deal with.
‘We as a Council have a recurring problem when we’re dealing with complex issues and more often than not it results in us doing nothing,’ Cr Pugh said.
‘Typically, we get a lot of push back from a very passionate community and we try and fit square pegs into round holes.’
‘It is ultimately the very definition of “the perfect being the enemy of the good”. Honestly, it’s extraordinarily frustrating having these issues – just one small intersection in our complex network having been hanging around our necks for 30 years.
‘I can appreciate the sentiments of trying to get something that might possibly work, but the amount of staff time that’s spent on these merry-go-rounds of designing and redesigning…
Eventually it all just gets too hard, and we end up doing nothing.’
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