Update 12 March: Added ACT Government response.

Street maintenance in Phillip has been neglected, and people walking around the commercial area are likely to trip over a broken footpath or manhole, claims Tom Adam, president of the Phillip Business Community.

He has published a video of “things that are gross and broken” in the precinct – some of which, he says, he reported to the ACT Government before the last election, and still have not been fixed.

“I’m desperate to get some things that we have been screaming about for years, and it’s falling on deaf ears,” Mr Adam said.

“The Phillip Business Community has tried in vain over the past few years to engage with [city services ministers] Chris Steel and Tara Cheyne. They keep saying ‘they’re engaging’ with the local communities, but they haven’t contacted me or spoken to me since 2022.”

Mr Adam says he walked up and down Townshend Street, Phillip’s main drag, with Mr Steel before the 2020 election, pointing out the problems, and with Ms Cheyne in 2022.

“It shouldn’t take us yelling, writing letters, and complaining, to get basic street maintenance issues resolved.”

“Safe infrastructure is a priority for the ACT Government,” a City Services spokesperson said. “Ongoing extreme weather caused by climate changes has led to an increased occurrence of defects across our road and path networks, and subsequently we’ve experienced an increase in reports coming through via Fix My Street.”

Phillip’s footpaths, Mr Adam says, are “broken to pieces, uneven, and an absolute trip hazard”. He estimates “someone has a small trip daily” on them. He has “had a slip” himself, and has seen several people trip.

“This is what millions of dollars of rates being collected in Phillip gets you,” Mr Adam said. “Crappy, uneven footpaths that people trip over every day.”

On one stretch of Townshend Street, between Botany Street and Grenville Court, the footpath has turned to gravel. “It is that broken down and worn out,” Mr Adam said.

What irks him is that the government has, several times, come out to look at it, and painted white lines around it. “They’ve actually come back and resprayed, but never fixed it.”

City Services said that the damaged section of footpath was reported in September 2022, and inspected within two weeks.

“The damage was not identified as an immediate safety concern with a work order raised to repair the footpath. This work is scheduled to occur in the coming months.

 “The white lines on this section of footpath show the area for repair. Requests to Fix My Street are triaged with public safety as the highest priority. Where issues are not urgent, they may be programmed into larger packages of works to enable them to be addressed more cost efficiently.

“This was the case for the damaged section of footpath on Townshend Street. However, Roads ACT will reinspect the location to determine if it needs to be reprioritised.”

The government, Mr Adam said, has also resurfaced the road twice in the last several years – but not filled up a pothole, in which trees are now growing.

City Services said it had repaired several potholes on Townshend Street in 2022 and 2023. There are no current requests for pothole repairs along Townshend Street within Fix My Street. However, Roads ACT has logged a job for the pothole with a plant growing inside it, and will investigate it for repair.

Mr Adam says he logged a manhole in Colbee Court during the first lockdown in 2020; all the government has done is put netting around it.

“It is an accident waiting to happen, and the ACT Government do not give a crap about the people of Phillip, the businesses in Phillip. And they’re waiting for someone to break their ankle on that.”

City Services said that the manhole was likely to be the asset of a utility provider. The ACT Government will investigate and liaise with the utility provider to have the issue addressed.

These, Mr Adam says, are only “a small sample” of the street maintenance issues in Phillip south of Hindmarsh Drive.

“Just some of the crap that we have to put up with from this local government,” Mr Adam said. “Because they’re not a state government, they’re a local government, and they can’t do either well.”

“We have a proactive program to inspect our key arterial roads and also responds to community requests of dangerous potholes,” the City Services spokesperson said. “We thank the community for lodging requests for maintenance to Fix My Street, and encourage them to continue to do so.”

Mr Adam has been a member of the Canberra Liberals party since June 2022.