The sealing of dusty roads at Lockwood has been all but ruled out in a report to be considered by City of Greater Bendigo councillors at Wednesday’s council meeting.

The report was sparked by a petition signed by 38 residents, who complained of a severe dust problem along Nevinson and McKinnons roads.

Assessment of the roads considered the proximity of houses to the roads, the use of the roads by a school bus and traffic counts.

 Nevinson Road was rated 15 out of 308 road sealing projects and McKinnons Road was rated 46.

The report said sealing the roads would cost $1,330,000 and $760,000 respectively, and as such the projects were unlikely to be considered in the short to medium term.

But the report recommends the council support further trials of dust suppression measures and the development of a rating system for such measures, as well as support a budget bid for a dust suppression program to be referred to the 2017-18 council budget.

The report said the council had trialled various dust suppression measures with mixed success and despite numerous requests for such treatments in dry conditions, they fell outside the scope of the current budget. 

Petition organiser Norman Harris was happy to hear the issue had progressed, but said residents would “keep at it” until they reached a satisfactory conclusion.

“We’d just like to see something happen to get rid of the dust problem, that’s our number one aim,” Mr Harris said.

Residents have complained of various dust-related problems, including worsening health problems, damage to vehicles, poor visibility, limited effectiveness of solar panels and dust blowing into homes.

Mr Harris said he believed it had been at least 10 years since any road-sealing work had been carried out at Lockwood.