By Melissa Meehan
IT’S a muddy mess.
But trying to find out who is to blame for the poor condition of Range Road, Lang Lang, is harder than it looks.
Locals are blaming large quarry trucks and the quarry management blames illegal recreational vehicles for the mess.
There is no dispute that the road is in unsatisfactory state, but both sides say they know who is responsible.
Lang Lang residents Jessica George and Jack Gilchrist say the condition of the road, which leads to a public reserve was “perfect until a year ago” when quarry company TPS started driving its six wheeled trucks towards the reserve to dump leftover sand and clay.
“Now it’s stuffed,” Mr Gilchrist said.
“And on top of that it doesn’t help when local hoons take old cars down there and pull burnouts.”
Ms George agreed.
“Machinery driven by quarry workers is exactly what’s causing it,” she said.
“The fact that they are not supposed to be driving down there, they don’t maintain the road – it’s unsafe for the locals who use it.”
She said recently while giving her four-wheel-drive a run, she found a woman bogged in the mud.
“We had to tow her out with the four-wheel-drive and even we struggled,” she said.
“Imagine if we didn’t go down there that night, she could have been stuck for a long time.”
But TPS Quarry manager Greg Pearson said his drivers had the right to use the public road and both the Cardinia Shire Council and Department of Primart Industries were aware of their practices.
“And even though it is a public road we maintain it,” Mr Pearson said.
“We have spent a considerable amount maintaining the road, only two weeks ago we spent thousands of dollars re-rocking the road and before that thousands upgrading it.”
He said the real cause of the poor state of the road was illegal recreational vehicles such as motorcycles and four-wheel-drives tearing up the reserve on weekends.
“It’s (the reserve) a dumping ground for stolen vehicles, boats, and rubbish – you should see the state of it on a Monday morning,” he said.
“No one has made a complaint to me and we are comfortable that we have a right to use the road.”
