On the south side of Learmonth Street in Buninyong, there's a curious anomaly.
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Streetscape works across the last few years have brought paved service roads and footpaths almost the entire length of the Midland Highway in town, providing safe access for pedestrians.
Except for one block.
Ninety-three-year-old war widow Carmel Spencer moved to Buninyong six years ago, picking up a house on Learmonth Street because of how close she would be to the supermarket, and the town hall's art shows.
Outside her house, on the block between Cornish and Inglis Streets, she's waited for the gravel service road to be sealed, and a footpath to be installed.
Every year, she or her children have phoned the council to ask when the upgrade might begin.
Every year, they're told it's in the budget for the following year - and it looks like she'll be waiting until at least 2021.
While she's bright and spritely for her years, and her house is only about 500 metres from the shops, her house is on a hill.
"I'm not using an electric scooter yet, I want to get one but I wouldn't dare get it with the road like it is," she said.
"Each year I find it harder to walk to the shops."
Her son Michael said it "beggars belief" that his mum has received the same response from council each year.
"The simple fact is that it's the one little stretch they've refused to acknowledge," he said.
"There's been some major works done in Buninyong over the past 12 months with the road divides and paving to beautify the area, but she's only three or four hundred metres away from them."
City of Ballarat infrastructure and environment director Terry Demeo said in a statement the road is scheduled to be built in the 2021 financial year.
"Council aims to maintain our entire road and footpath network to a good standard with our maintenance regime now established in a robust and coordinated manner," he said.
"Our capital program looks to undertake works in a strategic manner to address our road network based on condition reporting, concerns raised by residents and specific pavement testing undertaken on a periodic basis.
"At the moment, we are scheduled to build the road and footpath on Learmonth Street between Inglis and Cornish Streets in the 2021-22 financial year.
"The City of Ballarat assets and maintenance teams are continually reviewing the state of all our infrastructure assets."
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