MELVILLE council will spend up to $50,000 of its residents cash to spruik the state government’s Roe Highway extension.

Cr Cameron Schuster this week put forward a plan to spend $50,000 on a six-month “public information campaign”  supporting the extension of Roe through the Beeliar wetlands to reduce congestion on local roads.

The campaign will feature fact sheets and posters at council facilities, signs along South Street and Leach Highway, and information sheets and advertising in the two local papers for eight weeks.

The plan was opposed by four councillors—usual Roe 8 opponents June Barton, Nick Pazolli and Suzanne Taylor-Rees—along with Cr Duncan Macphail who just wasn’t keen on spending ratepayer cash to sell their position on a state government project.

Cr Susanne Taylor-Rees says the council should have waited for an upcoming elector’s meeting about the freight link before advertising a position.

Rod Short collected 176 signatures in a couple of hours to force the meeting.

He got interested in the freight link after learning of the wetlands under threat.

“I’m a scout leader, we take kids down there, and the beauty of the lakes and the serenity and the peace is going to be shattered,” he told the Herald.

by DAVID BELL