LEADING ENGINEER CALLS FOR SEALING OF ‘DIRECT ROUTE’ RUSSELL ISLAND STREET
Long time Russell Island resident John Clissold knows a thing or two about roads and footpaths.
John lives in Nicholas Street, the next street up High Street from the Russell Island Shopping Centre.
It also happens to be the most ‘direct route’ to the island’s sporting fields, tennis courts and the vital Resilience Centre.
John also happens to be one of Queensland’s best known civil engineers, and he has a portfolio of experience that is hard to match.
So, it still comes as a ‘surprise’ to him that Nicholas Street still does not have an all weather surface or a concrete footpath.
So close to island facilities and to the island ferries, and no amenities whatsoever.
John Clissold is an imposing man, despite the fact that these days he is confined to a wheelchair.
“Being one of the closest streets to the ferry and the shopping centre, Cavendish Street is the most direct route to the sporting fields and designated emergency facilities at the council Resilience Centre.
“So you would think that council in its wisdom would seal the road and install a footpath,” John reckons.
He certainly is not wrong, when you see the road that is not much more than a bush track so close to all island amenities.
John’s pleas for sealing of the road and, at the very least, a concrete footpath, continues to fall on deaf ears’.
John Clissold in his engineering career has worked on seven Local Government councils, Queensland Main Roads, managed the Northern Territory Infrastructure Department, was a specialist manager on the Clem 7 Road Tunnel, and has worked in five overseas countries on some of the most important engineering projects imaginable.
So, seeing his continual pleas to council firmly rejected, is a blow to he and his family and the other residents of Nicholas Street.
John struggles daily to navigate the bumpy surface seated in his wheelchair (he still does active engineering consultancies; much of it pro bono).
Just recently council was advised ‘officially’ that Nicholas Street is still ‘not on’ the Russell Island road sealing and footpath program.
“I have made so many calls and complaints to council, I feel I have been placed in a special ‘category’.
“The criterion for street improvement makes Nicholas Street an immediate high priority and council has no personal accountable who will provide a public response to me.
“There is also no council empathy or accountability,” John Clissold added.
• John Clissold in his wheelchair navigating Nicholas Street, Russell Island, in front of his home.