Labor's Josh Black announces funding for Dubbo's roads if elected

Cr Black, who is running as the Labor candidate in the 2023 NSW election, announced a $16.4 million emergency road repairs package, in addition to the Government's pothole funding announcement earlier this year.

It includes:

The funding announcement comes after "more than a decade of neglect by the Nationals, compounded by floods and bushfire, and a failure to invest in regional road maintenance".

Cr Josh Black said "in 2019, the Liberals and Nationals promised to reclassify and transfer up to 15,000 km of roads to help lift the burden on councils."

"Despite being the Government's signature regional roads commitment in 2019, it remains unfulfilled - and in the last four years has transferred a total of zero kilometres of regional roads," he said.

When asked if he believed $7 million was enough for the Dubbo region, Cr Black said it would "be a start".

"...it would go directly to councils to fix the local roads that we drive on every day," he said.

"It is money more than doubling the road repair funding allocated by the current Liberal National Government. It's a very good announcement from the opposition, and if Labor forms government on March 25, I would expect this ongoing commitment to regional and rural NSW."

Cr Black said the $5 million Dubbo Regional Council received to repair local roads and the $6.9 million he is promising would total the $10 million he has sought previously.

"But we always need more," he said.

In a report by the Daily Liberal on January 16, 2023 Dubbo Regional councillor Josh Black called on the State Government to provide Dubbo Regional Council with at least $10 million from the recently announced roads funding program.

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"Whilst the State Government's recent road funding announcement is welcome, suggestions that Dubbo Regional Council's allocation will be only $5 million falls a very long way short of what is needed," Cr Black said.

"I believe that our council should be allocated at least $10 million to help fix some of the roads crisis that has been brought about by chronic under-funding and cost shifting onto council from both State and Federal Governments, which is then made worse by the wet weather."

In another article by the Liberal, it was reported in December, 2022 that while $15 million worth of emergency funding was shared by flood affected council's mid November for urgent repairs to 'restore access to flood-impacted areas', Dubbo was one of the LGA's that missed out.

"I note some flood affected councils share in $15 million worth of emergency funding from the state government, that's fantastic for those councils and much needed, but this council area needs it," Cr Black said.

"We could easily handle the $15 million on our own so hopefully there's more emergency money coming to Dubbo because our roads and infrastructure are in massive emergency as a result of floods, so that would be fair."

A June, 20, 2022 Liberal article stated that in 2021, council received $6.3 million from the federal government and $9.2 million from the state government for work roads.

Cr Black said at the time he wanted to see both of those figures increased after seeing a DRC report that stated a projected roads maintenance backlog of $136 million.

"We're simply not getting enough state and federal funding," he said.

More recently, Cr Black said regional and rural roads have needed more funding for the last decade.

"The waste and rorts of this NSW Government would have been more than enough to repair the roads," he said.

In a recent survey by the NRMA, The Golden Highway was voted as the worst road in the region, but Cr Black said he's heard a lot more complaints about other roads.

"Councils and Transport for NSW would each have their own schedule of works, so it would be a matter of working together to prioritise strategic regional maintenance plans," he said.

"A whole of government approach is required as it is a roads emergency."

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