An NRMA report has found that councils in the Macarthur region have a combined backlog of almost $58 million in funding to get local roads up to a safe standard.
Funding Local Roads has analysed the backlog of works reported by three local councils in their annual reports. The NRMA report has been released to coincide with its Federal Election campaign, Keep Australia Moving, and is encouraging the public to get involved by visiting the website.
While the backlog for the councils has reportedly fallen by almost $4.7 million since the NRMA last conducted this analysis for the 2013-14 financial year ($62.8 million), the $58.1 million funding shortfall required to make local roads safe is clearly too high.
The NRMA report identified over $1.7 billion (2014/15) in council backlog for road infrastructure across NSW. In Macarthur, Wollondilly Council reported a backlog of $33 million, Campbelltown Council reported an $18.5 million backlog and Camden Council a $6.6 million backlog.
In this year’s Federal Budget, funding for councils to improve the safety of local roads has been maintained through the Roads to Recovery and Blackspot programs, with funding increases forecast in the coming years.
Revenue from the fuel excise has increased by $800 million to $15.7 billion.
If the Roads to Recovery funding announced in this month’s Federal Budget is maintained the backlog would not be met until 2027.
NRMA local Director Marisa Mastrioanni said whichever party won the July 2 federal election needed to guarantee at least half of all revenue raised through the fuel excise be committed to roads and fast-track funding to help Macarthur councils meet their road backlog.
“There is considerable investment in roads across South West Sydney through the Federal Government’s Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan and this comes off the back of the recent upgrade to the M5 motorway,” Ms Mastrioanni said.
“This is positive news for the area and will help tackle congestion.
“However, we must not forget that the bulk of roads in the local area are maintained by local councils and the NRMA will continue to fight to ensure councils have access to the state and federal funding programs they need.”
♦ The NRMA is calling for:
• Fast-track funding provided by Roads to Recovery;
• Return a greater share of fuel excise levies to regional councils;
• Provide councils with a low interest regional funding source;
• Combine road asset benchmarks and consolidate regional road planning;
• Build up the engineering capability of regional councils;
• Build road networking alliance with the private sector to improve road project delivery;
• Reform Government funding programs for local councils.
