The pavers get a bad rap from vocal critics but much of that can be traced back to an unforgivable level of neglect extending over several years.

It really is a ‘no priority maintenance’ zone.

The pavers do get slippery but so too does every other wet surface and there are means to address it. 

The real hazard is the sunken and misplaced pavers that have never had simple maintenance, mostly after being disturbed by utility companies.

That unhappy state of affairs is now being increasingly amplified by seemingly never ending trenching and work on service mains.

Council’s stated policy in the past has been that than when footpaths are opened by Telstra, Endeavour Energy, NBN or whatever there is a requirement for proper restoration of the pavers.

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That’s not happening and lately our Main Street footpaths are becoming an ugly patchwork of bitumen fill, some of which is now crumbling to create an even bigger mess.

Those responsible appear to be getting away with it; it’s months since the longest of the trenches was dug and tarred along the northern side of central Main Street.

So what’s going on? Surely not the bitumenising of our footpaths by stealth?

Let’s not go back to the bad old pre-paver days of featureless CBD footpaths and ugly water pipe hand rails.

Maybe an all bitumen footpath is the eventual plan; after the cut price Cook Plaza chaos nothing would surprise our community.

THE entrance to Lithgow from the west is a little colourless lately.   The banners along the highway frontage  from the west have been missing for weeks and just like other notable locations in town  the six naked flagpoles do nothing to say welcome. Detracts from an otherwise pleasing part of town. We should be taking a lead from the impressive flag waving welcoming you to Bathurst.

IT’S encouraging to note police promises of a crackdown on dangerous hoons in the Newnes State Forest. They’re in plague proportions up there. But promises are only as good as their execution and previous campaigns, including much publicised team efforts by police, National Parks and Lithgow Council have lasted, in a manner of speaking, about five minutes. Maybe this time.

MAYBE political parties will finally get the message that last minute election pork barrelling no longer works. Here in the country and now in the cities cynical voters are demanding year round commitment to their needs, not just promises at election time. 

In recent times Wagga rebelled. So too did electors in Orange and in by elections in Queensland. Now in the biggest prize of them all, Wentworth, where the PM was even prepared to alienate most of the world (except Donald Trump and an obscure South American country) in a bid to secure just the Jewish vote. They’ve been harsh lessons indeed for the Coalition parties in particular but is anyone listening?