Wollondilly Shire is one of three council areas excluded from a NSW Government $50 million Fixing Local Roads Pothole Repair Program announced last week.
Now the council has joined the other two left out in the cold, Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury to write a joint letter to the state government calling for inclusion in the pothole repair program.
The program will assist local regional councils in the short-term repair of priority potholes and other road repairs.
Wollondilly roads have been battered throughout 2022 with five separate storm events causing major flood damage right across the Shire, so what about us, says Mayor Matt Gould.
“We have a smaller population than our metropolitan neighbours yet have a much larger area to look after which comprises 870km of road, including a number of busy main roads which are managed by the state government in surrounding LGAs,’’ said Mayor Gould.
“Wollondilly has the same issues as other regional councils when it comes to the severity of potholes across our roads, with the added impact of extra traffic due to our location on Greater Sydney’s fringe, yet we have been excluded from this desperately needed pothole funding.
“Wollondilly is the southern gateway to regional NSW and is relied on as the major connection from Sydney to Goulburn, Canberra and the Illawarra.
“In light of this, we are calling on the NSW Government to urgently give us access to funding to get these potholes fixed.”
The three excluded councils were declared natural disaster areas after extreme weather events in February 2020, March 2021, February 2022, March 2022 and July 2022 and have been labouring since to repair significant damage to roads in the face of ongoing wet weather, and the shortage of qualified contractors and road repair materials.
The three councils say they share many characteristics with regional council regions that were included in the program.
