By Shelby Brooks
Yarra Ranges Council has been left gobsmacked by the federal government’s decision to scrap $300m road sealing project in the 2022-23 budget which includes council’s Roads for Community Initiative and Sealing the Hills Road Project in Cardinia Shire.
The Yarra Ranges project received bi-partisan support in the 2019 election which was estimated to offer sealing to approximately 187 km’s of road over a nine year period.
Mayor Jim Child said council received funding of $98,577,380 in 2021 to help deliver the first six years of the Roads for the Community program
“The program has currently sealed 11km’s of roads and there is another 12km’s in construction or recently awarded to contractors for construction. A further 48km’s of projects are in the design stage, with the community having already been consulted,” he said.
“Council has been able to deliver a large number of critical road sealing projects in our municipality through this program since it was introduced in 2019 and we had hope that this program will continue to enable us to deliver more important road infrastructure projects for the community.”
The scrapping of the road sealing projects has been slammed by La Trobe MP Jason Wood.
In parliament, Mr Wood claimed the Federal Government must “hate the people of the Dandenong Ranges and the hills” for cutting future funding for the project, which was first announced in 2019.
“It is totally unfair that hills residents are subjected to second rate roads, with potholes in winter and dust in summer,” Mr Wood told Star Mail.
“The [Cardinia Shire] council has advised me that without Federal funding, it would take 80-100 years to seal these roads.”
110 kilometres of unsealed roads in Cardinia Shire and 187 kilometres in the Yarra Ranges would have been sealed between 2020 and 2029 as part of the Sealing the Hills Road Project and Roads for Community Initiative.
The funding of $300 million was the result of an advocacy partnership between Cardinia Shire Council and Yarra Ranges Council to improve unsealed roads.
The project was to be co-funded by property owners via a special charge scheme.
A spokesperson for the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts said some existing infrastructure projects had been reviewed, and in some cases, reduced or discontinued in the October budget.
“This includes the Sealing Roads projects in the Dandenong Ranges for the Yarra Ranges and Cardinia Shire councils, where future projects have been discontinued,” they said.
“A number of projects have already been delivered and we will continue to work with both councils to deliver works that are currently under construction or have tender processes underway to ensure minimal disruption.”
They said current economic conditions were affecting the delivery of infrastructure investments and increasing the pressure on the Commonwealth budget.
A spokesperson for Cardinia Shire Council said the Federal funding subsidised about 85 per cent of the total cost of works.
“Without this funding, council and residents will be unable to cover the cost of this alone,” they said.
Cardinia Shire Council has had $41 million of federal funding approved for the Sealing the Hills’ current and upcoming works.
They have received $22 million towards the works, with $128 million outstanding to complete the entire Sealing the Hills program.
Since commencing in mid-2021, Cardinia Shire Council has completed or is nearing completion on seven roads, with construction set to ramp-up shortly with works on 32 roads expected to start in early 2023.
“On behalf of our communities, we would be extremely disappointed should federal funding not be available for the entirety of this vitally important road safety program,” Cardinia Shire Mayor Tammy Radford said.
Ranges ward councillor Jeff Springfield said the funding program was vital to delivering improved safety and amenities for thousands of residents.
“The reported news that the entirety of this program may no longer be funded has caused great distress and concern for many of our residents,” he said.
Tony Stevenson, who was the Yarra Ranges mayor at the time of the original announcement in 2019, shared his dismay at the situation.
“In the run up to the 2019 Federal Election, Yarra Ranges Council worked hard to achieve bipartisan support for Federal Government funding to help seal dirt roads within townships across Yarra Ranges,” he said.
“Cancelling this funding will once again put road upgrades out of the reach of ordinary Australians and will cost local jobs. This road funding is even more urgently needed now given the heightened risks of fires and storms as experienced in the 2020 Black Summer bushfires and 2021 Dandenong Ranges storms.
“It is simply not acceptable in 2022 that people in towns, often only 50km from the centre of Melbourne, suffer from third-world roads and drains.”
