Mr Rule, 73, has lived in Devenish for 20 years and said his main concern is that water has nowhere to drain away.
“These big concrete drains were installed about two and a half year's ago,” Mr Rule said.
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“The water is not draining away and the big issue related to that is that the kids like to play in the water.
“When it's almost empty they are running up and down in the dirty water and sludge.
“And when it's full they jump in like a pool.”
Mr Rule said the youngsters playing in the drains is to be expected but he feels because of potential safety risks there should be fencing in place.
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“It should be fenced like a normal swimming pool,” he said.
“If I wanted to put a little pool in my garden Council would force me to put up a fence.
“The water comes up a metre high and sits there for days.
“We've got two families in this street with young kids, and water that deep could be dangerous to them.
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“My biggest concern is the kids, but also elderly people.
“If they have a trip or a fall, they could bang their head and with metre-deep water around that could be dangerous.”
Kevin Joyce, who also lives on Brown St, and has done for 30 years, said he has the same concerns.
“When the engineer turned up and explained what they were planning to put in a few year's back I told him it wouldn't work,” Mr Joyce said.
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“But he seemed confident it would and said it would be done properly.
“And in a way he is right. The standard of workmanship is good, but they have not considered where the water will drain to.
“So it just sits there.”
Mr Rule said he would like two things to happen, firstly he feels the open drain should be replaced with a pipe.
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And he also feels the drain should be fenced in, in the meantime.
Benalla Rural City chief officer Dom Testoni said council was presently drains throughout the local government area.
“Benalla Rural City has a vast drainage network, which includes both underground and open drainage systems,” Mr Testoni said.
“We are currently assessing the feasibility of converting the open drain to an underground pipe system.
“(However), there is no requirement to fence open drains.”
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