They call it Sebastopol's forgotten street.
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Residents of Spencer Street say they are fed up with council inaction on their crumbling road.
They pick up chunks of bitumen displaced by garbage trucks every Monday, and are constantly sweeping gravel out of gutters and driveways.
Barry Tuddenham has lived in the street for much of his 70 years in Sebastopol. He said he "can't remember" the last time they fixed the road between Victoria and Walker streets.
"It's breaking away all the time," Mr Tuddenham said.
The road's getting narrower, so when they come around the corner, they have to go on the gravel because two cars can't fit past.
- Spencer Street resident Barry Tuddenham
The problems are compound by the street's increasingly busy nature. The Sebastopol South Kindergarten is located in Spencer Street, with rubber marks from hoons along the strip.
Resident Angus Wright said hoons were deliberately driving on the gravel to break traction, spitting stones onto grass which are "flung by the mower blades", damaging the surrounds.
"Sealing Spencer Street from gutter to gutter, or more frequently maintaining the gravel sections at the edges of the bitumen section would be a much appreciated improvement," he said.
City of Ballarat CEO Justine Linley said condition reports state the street's bitumen will need to be relaid in the next five years.
"The pavement width in Spencer Street like all other streets constructed in that era has approximately a 25-year wearing surface life," she said.
"Council records reveal that the surface will require resurfacing within a five-year window based on condition reports."
Broader conversation about equitable suburb funding sparked
Conversation continues about which areas of Ballarat need funding to keep up with demand - and which suburbs may have been left behind.
City of Ballarat said they did not keep details of funding across each council ward or suburb, according to a statement posted online.
Sebastopol resident Henry Svedas said during the state election, candidates were constantly knocking on his Spencer Street door, and he'd made many calls to local councillors and City of Ballarat about his street.
I said, 'All I ask is you fix the road.' But then nothing happens … it's because it's Sebastopol.
- Sebastopol resident Henry Svedas
Councillor Des Hudson said he had been contacted by residents about Spencer Street, and hoped there would be funding to improve the road in the upcoming or 2020/21 annual budget.
But more broadly, he said Sebastopol was now getting its fair share of council's budgetary pie, with recent upgrades to Marty Busch Reserve, the Sebastopol Library and the Men's Shed.
"People tend to not see everything council is doing, are they're unsurprisingly parochial about their patch, but there is investment happening around Sebastopol," Cr Hudson said.
When it comes to Miners Rest, councillor Grant Tillett said the town had "pretty much been forgotten" over the last 25 years, aside from works on the Miners Rest Community Park and hall.
"The town has missed out in several recent budgets of council," he said.
"Flood mitigation needs to happen. Funding has been approved for the primary school expansion, and I'd be disappointed if it wasn't in the state government's budget this year.
"Provision for some serious recreation facilities in Miners Rest is now a hot topic, so is a lot of tree planting and town beatification works."
The municipality's CEO, Justine Linley, pointed to the city's "infrastructure renewal gap" of around $40 million, which the council has chalked up to Victoria's rate cap of 2.5 per cent.
"We should be spending $83.4 million per year just to sustain what we have," she said. "Without significant state and federal government investment we will struggle to meet either our vision or our purpose. We need a better share of the tax dollar."
The city said for the current financial year, they had budgeted $13.1 million for parks and gardens, $11.3 for capital works on roads and bridges and $550,000 on footpaths.
Ms Linley stated approximately $1 million is spent on Lake Wendouree for weed cutting and maintenance, to enable activities at the site.
"Lake Wendouree is a significant local and regional asset, used extensively by residents across the City and is a tourism and sporting drawcard," she said.
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