Originally Posted by
Machka
From my experience, spending on things like sidewalks and paths is somewhat complicated.
The shire will have a budget for minimal new work and for maintenance. If there is going to be any more work than that, the shire needs to get grants. A good portion of infrastructure work comes from grants.
These grants often have restrictions. The path or sidewalk has to be paved. The path or sidewalk must not be paved. The path or sidewalk must be this wide ... or that narrow. The path or sidewalk can go here, but not there. Some of the restrictions are quite understandable ... other restrictions are rather odd. But if you want the grant, you comply.
But before you go crazy and get all sorts of grants, you've also got to look at your workforce and how much work they can handle. A $10,000 grant might be OK because it means that 1 block of sidewalk might be built. The workforce can handle that with all the other work they've got on the schedule. But if you apply for a $100,000 grant ... are you actually going to be able to complete the work within the time limit on the grant? And can you hire extra help? Some grants will allow you to use some of the grant money to hire extra help ... some absolutely refuse to let one cent of the grant be spent on labour. You've got to check that and weigh up the pros and cons.
In the midst of all this, you're doing community consultations. Does the community want a sidewalk or path and if so, what sort? So before you rush out and get a grant, you've got to find these things out ... but you also don't want to get the hopes of the community up. If you have community consultations and everyone wants a great paved path ... can you get a grant for that? What if you can't and you have to break it to the community that the money is not available.
That's just a very basic example there of a few elements that go into building a sidewalk or path. There are lots of other factors as well.
We might sit here and think ... "it would be great if" or "why don't they" or whatever. But actually working in that area was a very eye-opening experience for me. It's just not that simple.
I encourage anyone who wants more cycling/walking infrastructure in their local areas to get involved and find out what's involved.
Ultimately, whatever we do or don't do as a community of grant-funders and contractors/workers for that grant money is democratically negotiable to the extent that everyone involved is willing to listen to each other and give serious consideration to differing perspectives.