City of Nedlands scraps $300k in Federal funding for 13 new speed bumps after local residents voice concerns

Nedlands council has scrapped a plan for speed bumps at the eleventh hour after aggrieved residents made clear that no one in and around Vincent Street wanted them.

The City of Nedlands had campaigned for and received grant money to install 13 speed plateaus across Vincent Street, Melvista Avenue, Princess Road and Adelma Road but will now have to hand that $300,000 back to the Federal Government.

And despite the council insisting that city officers would look into other ways to slow traffic through the streets, senior staff said there was no guarantee a future grant application would be successful.

That’s because the criteria for Black Spot funding places a heavy emphasis on crash data from the past five years and some of the area’s most serious recent crashes - including a fatality - would no longer be part of the timeframe.

The decision to cancel the Vincent Street Black Spot Project was made on Tuesday at a special council meeting actually intended to appoint a roadworks contractor to install the speed bumps.

But local residents argued that history showed speed bumps were not the solution to slowing traffic.

They reminded the council they had been down a similar road 20 years prior, where two speed bumps installed in isolation along Vincent Street were ripped out just a year later.

“Calming creates frustration and anger,” Michael Lindroos said.

“Speed bumps hypothetically have a real effect on calming traffic. But that calming does not translate to residential satisfaction ... where you hear banging and crashing.

“It’s not fun.”

Vincent Street is a major thoroughfare from Stirling Highway through Nedlands and Dalkeith, continuing as Adelma Road closer to the river.

Nedlands’ technical services director Matthew MacPherson said council staff were aware that speed bumps were put in in 2001, but had not been provided with any further information about them or their removal.

He said the proposal would help reduce speeding on Vincent Street — which was the desired aim — and that additional community consultation undertaken in March was “more relevant than sentiment of the community over two decades ago”.

Mr Lindroos countered that the people who live in the street did not support having speed bumps outside their homes.

“It seems that the residents, not just ratepayers, but residents that live on that street are seriously concerned about this,” he said.

All seven councillors at Tuesday’s meeting supported an alternative motion to scrap the project.

“Given the community engagement has been inadequate, the time period from what we saw this ourselves as a memo is a case history of how not to do things through administration and council,” Cr Rebecca Coughlan said.

“I feel that on all of these reasons alone, we should not be supporting this tonight.”

Council staff have also been asked to begin working on another way to slow traffic in the area, but reducing the speed limit to 40km/h appears unlikely.

One technique they will explore is to have chicanes leading to roundabouts, but councillors were warned that could become very expensive as it can involve needing to buy-back land from residents and shift underground utilities.

When asked if the city could lose the opportunity to access the funding in future years, Mr MacPherson agreed it would be harder to receive, as it is less likely the city will meet the necessary prerequisites again.