Ward D councillor James Ryan will move that council prepare a report on the cost of installing a footpath along Deakin Street from the school to the intersection with Mitchell Avenue, with a view to the first stage of the project potentially being funded in the 2014/15 budget.

Cr. Ryan said the footpath is one of the most urgently required pieces of pedestrian infrastructure in the Cessnock local government area.

“There is a long history of community requests for a footpath in this location, including a petition presented to Cessnock Council,” he said.

“As a councillor I receive repeated requests for this infrastructure over the past 10 years.

“A footpath in this location would make this area far safer and more convenient for high school students and residents alike.

“This idea has been talked about for many years; it is time to make it happen.”

Cr. Ryan said the RMS (then RTA) decision to install traffic signals at the intersection of Mitchell Avenue and Deakin Street to provide a safe pedestrian crossing is evidence of the level of pedestrian traffic.

“The RTA has started the job at the other end, now we need to finish it,” he said.

“As long as I have been a councillor this has been an issue, but somehow it ended up off council’s priority list.

 “I had assumed until recently that this project was already being planned for, however the response to my inquiries as to why council would fund a footpath a Nulkaba when this route in Kurri Kurri is much more heavily used by students, it became apparent that council has not placed this project on its priority list.”

At council’s August 20 meeting, Cr. Ryan presented his first ‘ALP Political Promises Award’ to the Nulkaba footpath project.

Council deferred planned footpath construction on Mount View Road (the Wollombi Road end) and replaced it with the Nulkaba footpath project in the 2014/15 financial year, which Cr. Ryan labelled as ‘queue jumping for political favour’.