Footpaths are the most commonly raised topic with me during doorknocking.

Conversations with residents tend to go in two directions:

1. Residents who do not have a footpath, would like one.
2. Residents who have a footpath, have trouble using it due to tripping hazards, debris etc.

There is a level of irony in the two positions raised above. We should be encouraging and facilitating more people to walk around their neighbourhood, whether this is to school, the shops or for general fitness / recreation.

Councils’ rollout of brick pavers over bitumen paths has brought both negatives and positives. Brick pavers were chosen for several reasons that I will touch on in an article at a later date. We are however, far enough down the brick paver path, that it would be difficult to change now. One area that does irk me considerably, has been the replacement of often reasonably good bitumen footpaths with brick pavers, also a topic for another day.

Not every road needs a footpath (or two if you live down the hill). Given the topography of my local area, it is often impossible/prohibitively expensive to construct new footpaths. This means there must be a focus on planning and delivering key walking routes through the hills. A Hawthorndene Footpath Study kicking off soon will be looking at exactly this.

I do a lot of walking around my local area and footpath maintenance is a genuine problem in my opinion. Issues ranging from pushed up pavers presenting tripping hazards, overgrown vegetation and debris all hinder their use. As it currently stands, there is no scheduled footpath sweeping maintenance in Mitcham. While there is a footpath sweeping machine, this tends to only work in the flatter areas. For anything else though, particularly for areas in the hills, a manual cleanup tends to be required, often due to the narrowness and slope of the paths. A massive thank you to those residents who look after the footpath outside of their home by giving it the occasional sweep.

In the 22/23 financial year, Council attended to 317 of footpath defect requests. While ‘urgent’ requests get attended to within two weeks, most requests fall under ‘high’. ‘High’ rated requests are fixed within 90 days. Including scoping of the problem, this means it can take approximately 1/4 of a year to get a ‘high’ rated defect fixed. Personally, I do not believe this service level meets community expectations anymore, hence the issue being raised so frequently with me.

Getting footpath defects fixed quicker either requires an additional team or the re-allocation of an existing one. There is a budget option this year to improve footpath and road maintenance (pothole) response times. Given our expanding footpath network, there will be an increasing amount of work for the same number of workers.

If you would like to see improved footpath maintenance, please tell your local councillor. Also, make sure to report footpath defects via the Council website:

https://www.mitchamcouncil.sa.gov.au/our-services/report-an-issue-or-request-a-service

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