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Posted: 2023-01-31 22:45:20

Regional NSW councils will receive more than half of the $500 million in funding announced by the state government in January to fast-track repairs to flood-damaged roads. 

A total of $280 million has been promised to local governments in NSW, more than $12 million of which will go to councils in the Central West.

Dubbo Regional Council received $5,074,270 to repair 2,783 kilometres including Saxa Road, a popular bypass route that runs through the town of Comobella and is a major north–south commercial thoroughfare that has been open to local traffic only for many months.

The community of Comobella, near Wellington, is still recovering from last year's extremely wet winter season.

Comobella farmer Mark Conn said his community, near Wellington, was still recovering.

"A lot of people have kids going to school in Wellington, parents work in Wellington, we still have our grain and freight and livestock to move, we just want access," he said.

a weedy green plant grows between a large crack in a damaged road
Some regional roads have been in need of repair for more than a year.(ABC Western Plains: Olivia Ralph)

The Lachlan Shire Council in central New South Wales has received $7 million from the promised funding.

Mayor John Medcalf said the 4,500km of roads throughout the district had been a challenge to manage following an excessively wet year and multiple flood events.

"After the past 12 months with the flooding right through the year, the roads are certainly in a very bad state," he said.

"The way we've got to look at this is we're one of the largest shires in the state, we have 4,500km of roads to look after and that includes 1,200km of bitumen."

The nearby Parkes Shire Council received $4 million while the Forbes Shire Council will get $3.4 million.

A stretch of road with a large sign saying ROAD SURFACE in the front.
The NSW government has announced how much local councils will receive under a new road repair program.(ABC Central West: Tim Fookes)

Narromine Shire Council received just over $3 million to help repair their local road network.

Mayor Craig Davies welcomed the funding for his shire, but said more needed to be done to fix the road network across rural and regional NSW.

The NRMA said almost $2 billion would be needed to alleviate the devastation that had occurred on rural and regional roads over the past two years.

Cr Davies said this funding allocation proved $280 million for regional NSW was not enough.

"That's about a seventh or thereabouts of what's necessary to bring our roads back to a state that residents right across, not just Narromine, but the broader Central West and Far West of NSW expect," he said.

Fund awarded based on length of roads

Minister for Western NSW Dugald Saunders said the money was coming in addition to funding already announced and was for heavy patching, potholes, and bigger sections of roads.

"This is money that hasn't ever been done before," Mr Saunders told ABC Western Plains.

"So this is a top-up to all of the fixing country roads programs we have, the fixing local roads, the fixing country bridges — it's in addition to that."

Mr Saunders said the funding was allocated to councils based on the length of the road network they managed.

"Obviously they've got a significant part to play in tourism — and that freight connectivity, they are vital parts of that," Mr Saunders said.

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