Photo caption: Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall has today announced another $20.85 million immediate cash injection for the region’s councils to undertake urgent pothole repairs on local roads.
Tuesday, 3 January 2023
NORTHERN Tablelands MP Adam Marshall has today announced a second and immediate $20.85 million shot-in-the-arm from the State Government to help the region’s beleaguered councils, which are struggling to keep on top of the growing number of potholes and damage on local roads.
Mr Marshall said today’s $20.85 million allocation represented a massive five-fold increase on the $3.72 provided to the region’s councils in the first round late last year.
“We couldn’t have wished for a better start to the New Year than with this additional urgent funding to fix more dangerous sections on our local roads right now,” Mr Marshall said.
“It’s a huge allocation for our local councils, which we weren’t expecting but will gladly welcome – every extra slice of cash helps enormously.”
Mr Marshall said councils would use the extra money, which they will all received in the coming weeks, to cover the cost and ease workload pressures for urgent repairs to the most damaged sections of their local road networks across the region.
“With almost record rainfall being experienced across our region in the last 12 months – and two floods thrown in for the Moree district – our local roads have copped an absolute flogging are many are in the worst condition locals can remember,” Mr Marshall said.
“To make matters worse, the wet weather and difficulty in sourcing contractors and road crews has hampered councils’ efforts to undertake any major repairs, instead just temporarily patching what they can now.
“This second hit of extra cash alone isn’t the panacea, but it is another welcome boost for our councils and their road crews, who trying to take advantage of the current dry period to complete as much repair work as they can.”
Under this second funding round, councils were again allocated funding based on the size of their local road network:
• Armidale Regional $1,486,512.50
• Glen Innes Severn $2,213,999.76
• Gwydir Shire $3,971,545.93
• Inverell Shire $4,447,864.51
• Moree Plains Shire $5,194,780.64
• Uralla Shire $1,771,315.17
• Walcha $1,761,507.66
Total $20,847,526.20
“Councils are responsible for maintenance on the local road network so this second and larger cash hit will help ease some of the pressure they are facing and boost the resources they can draw upon to fix the most damaged roads,” Mr Marshall said.
“It will also help reduce the number popped tyres, bent rims and other vehicle damage being sustained by motorists as they try to navigate some challenging road conditions.”