Residents have raised concerns the Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale have neglected maintenance and development of the roads in the far southern end of the shire.
They have alleged Gobby Road in Keysbrook is dangerous especially in the winter.
Examiner staff drove along the dirt road in the rain and found the car veered from side to side, struggled through the mud and had to drive lower than the speed limit to stop the car from slipping.
Keysbrook resident Shane Rowley said his family have lived on the road for more than 80 years and he has expressed concerns over the road’s condition for a long time.
“Over the last 20 or so years two small sections of the road have been bituminised due to the fact that the road was inaccessible to two wheel drive vehicles,” he said.
“The last section was sealed due to the fact that the rubbish truck refused to pick up the rubbish from the whole shire unless something was done.”
Mr Rowley said these minor upgrades did not take away from the dangerous state of Gobby Road.
“We are in a landscape protection, high fire-risk area and there are numerous elderly residents who will one day require emergency services at some point in time and along with other residents and road users using this dangerous road,” he said.
“All people with authority have been notified of this and in my opinion are liable if and when a serious accident or death should occur.”
Resident Tom Porter said there had been little or no progress done to improve roads in the shire for decades.
“Some previous commitments from the shire about sealing more and more for the road each year has been broken and forgotten,” he said.
“It is disappointing to say the least.”
Mr Porter said Gobby Road also had a lot of water runoff and was a major safety concern.
“The clay under base makes for slippery conditions in the wet,” he said.
“Also there are some sharp turns on Gobby Road, this and the road condition often see people run off the road.”
Shire president John Erren said the shire was currently undergoing a number of roadworks in the are, including reshaping Gobby Road.
“While we were working on Gobby Road last week there was a minor issue following the heavy rains, which we addressed immediately by removing the clay material from the road with a grader,” he said.
“We will be returning to Gobby Road to complete the roadworks when the weather is better.”
Mr Erren said the shire was developing a road hierarchy model of the area to incorporate all classifications of roads as the shire had about 650-kilometres of sealed roads and 160-kilometres of unsealed roads over an area of 900-square kilometres.
“The shire will continue to maintain all roads in a safe and serviceable condition,” he said.
“We continue to lobby and investigate new opportunities to expand and improve the road network for our community in a challenging fiscal environment.”
