Good day to all the community,
I have a bit of an unusual situation involving the construction of a refuge pedestrian crossing outside my house where the process by the Council was not followed through correctly, and I have been engaging with their legal department with relation to the below issue, who are now requesting for me to go through a compensation claim with them and their insurer.
My property is on a 50km/h street overlooking a park. I understand the works are on a public road.
Summary of events:
November 2020
A Public Notice was sent to me in November 2020 regarding a proposed pedestrian refugee crossing in a different location as a resident who will be affected by it,
10 November 2020
I had sent an an objection to this Public Notice whereby I outlined my concerns.
21 December 2020
I received a response from the Council on 21 December 2021 with "A final design and location for the crossing is still in development, this can be expected to occur early next year, so there is opportunity to provide further objections or feedback via reply to this email."
21 May 2021
Construction of the refuge pedestrian crossing commenced. The issues with this are as follows:
1) I was not provided a further opportunity to provide further objections as promised to me via email on 21 December 2020
2) The location of the crossing had changed and now is located right in front of my house instead of outside my neighbour's house, which impacts me now more than what it did previously. I would have expected to have received a new Public Notice again with changes so I could have the opportunity for any further objections if I felt they required and this is what they had advised me would occur. The correct process had not been followed under the Local Government Act and I was not consulted properly.
21 May 2021,
I spoke to the key individual within the Council and he advised me that the location of the crossing had changed due to surveyors changing it at the "eleventh hour". The new diagram provided to me was dated January 2021 and not at the eleventh hour as indicated during my phone call. The timelines contradict one another.
Please find attached the original diagram in the Public Notice and then the new diagram after construction had commenced which was not provided to me.
As the Council is now requesting for me to go through the compensation process and the Legal person agreed the consultation process was not followed correctly, and I have to list the impact this has had on my property value, and one way I would like to do this is through this poll.
Some disadvantages from this crossing being built outside my house:
1) the negative impact on property value from having this structure installed. Would a potential buyer in the future see this as something that would detract from the value of my property? My property is located opposite a park and I had paid a premium price for the land purchase to be positioned opposite it
2) permanent removal of on-street parking in front of my property
3) difficulty reversing my vehicle onto the road to turn right as I now need to make an awkward, sharp turn after reversing
4) the nature strip has permanently been altered. I had artificial turf, they have attempted to fix this, but they had to add additional artificial turf to fill the void as the nature strip had to be extended out towards the road, but the colour and texture does not match the rest of the existing turf. I understand that the Council owns the nature strip, but they they have left it looking visually less appealing to how it was done prior to the works being undertaken
5) collection of rubbish around my property with garbage being trapped around the crossing and around my property
I appreciate your time in reading this and your feedback and response to the poll in advance
OLD Diagram of the crossing, directly in front of my neighbour's house
NEW Diagram of the crossing, location had changed from old diagram, to being in front of my house without being consulted):
NIMFY?
.