Country Labor candidate for Lismore Janelle Saffin says Labor will spend $59.9 million to fix roads across the Lismore electorate if elected at this month’s state election, with $3.4 million of that earmarked for Tenterfield.
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Ms Saffin said in a statement that the money would be used to help clear the road maintenance backlog for the four local government areas in the Lismore Electorate. She also committed to handing a number of local roads back to the State under Labor’s Regional and Rural Roads Reclassification Review.
“I lobbied hard for this funding recognising that to fix our local roads that all residents have been crying out for, needed this support from the State,” Ms Saffin said.
“I sought from our four local Councils their list of roads they want the state to take over. This is part of our plan to wind back the cost shifting that has gone on for too long.”
“The Liberal/National government have dumped more and more on local councils, meaning local communities have had to wear the burden and lose out on services.”
“This funding injection will assist Councils to clear the backlog and allow them to get ahead into the future, so they are not having to only do patch up.”
Funding committed as part of the announcement includes:
- Kyogle Council $16.45m
- Lismore City Council $35.65m,
- Tweed Shire Council $4.4m (covers Murwillumbah and Tweed Valley)
- Tenterfield $3.4m
Shadow Minister for Regional Roads, Peter Primrose MLC, said “The country roads package will add an additional $900 million commitment to rural and regional roads is almost double the existing $543m ‘Fixing Country Roads’ program and will bring the total investment to more than $1.4 billion."
He said a Daley Labor Government will commit to addressing the local council road maintenance backlog in the Lismore Electorate and the North Coast to deliver long overdue repairs and upgrades for country roads from Grafton to the Tweed and to Tenterfield.
The NRMA estimates that $300 million worth of works is required to replace roads requiring ‘urgent’ renovation, and a further $600 million is needed for roads in need of ‘significant rehabilitation.’
A recent NRMA report found the North Coast had the highest infrastructure backlog in the state totalling $437.8 million.
Last month, the NRMA’s ‘Funding Local Roads’ report found that the Regional and Local Roads Network, which covers 80 per cent of NSW roads, was in a state of decline and unable to properly accommodate existing passenger and freight movements.