Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight Melinda Pavey and Member for Tweed Geoff Provest today announced roads such as Tweed Valley Way, Pottsville Road and Tweed Coast Road will have the opportunity to be reclaimed by a re-elected NSW Nationals.
“We’ve listened to our local councils, communities and stakeholders and we are transferring up to 15,000km of council roads in regional NSW,” Mrs Pavey said.
“We are righting Labor’s wrong and putting an end to cost shifting of roads by establishing a process to remove the burden from local ratepayers and ensuring our regional road networks are brought to an acceptable standard”
The NSW Nationals will:
• Establish a $500 million Fixing Local Roads program to assist councils to repair, maintain and seal local roads in regional areas,
• Establish a $500 million Fixing Country Bridges program to replace the worst timber bridges in regional and rural communities,
• Establish the process to transfer up to 15,000 kilometres of regional roads back to the State,
• Set up an Independent Expert Panel to oversee the asset transfer process
Mr Provest welcomed the news, saying he had fought hard to see council roads such as Tweed Valley Way, Pottsville Road and Tweed Coast Road transferred back to the state.
“When Labor was in charge of our regional roads, Michael Daley dumped $477 million worth of regional roads onto local councils, knowing many didn’t have the rate base to fund basic maintenance,” Mr Provest said.
“This program will ensure our council roads are up to scratch enabling communities access to towns, whether its driving the kids to school or delivering fresh produce to the local grocer,”
Mr Provest added that this is on top of a $1 billion roads and bridges package that will see a re-elected NSW Nationals fix local roads across regional NSW, such as Kennedy Drive, Bilambil Road and Cudgen Road, helping councils such as Tweed Valley with their road maintenance backlog.
“Today’s announcement is more proof only the Nationals in government listen and deliver for regional and rural communities.”
Since 2011, the Nationals in government have invested more than $435 million in Tweed delivering easier, faster and safer roads.