The Federal Government’s $1.2 billion Roads to Recovery Programme, announced in late November, is moving ahead quickly. Councils have received information on the conditions that will apply and their allocations for the life of the Programme. The Commonwealth is now moving to finalise arrangements to enable the first payments to be made.
The four year Roads to Recovery Programme represents the largest ever injection of funds into local roads by any Federal Government.
An increase of this size means councils will have far greater capacity to maintain and repair their local roads.
The benefits to communities from the Programme, particularly in rural and regional Australia are clear.
Social and economic infrastructure will be enhanced, local industry’s competitiveness improved, sustainable jobs will be created, and education, health care and other amenities will be made more accessible.
It will also improve road safety. Funding is also being provided to assist urban councils with essential local road works.
The responses the Federal Government has received from councils indicate that they welcome the method of direct payments in order to determine their own funding priorities.
Councils have been asked to develop initial schedules of works to be funded under the Programme to enable the first payments to be made.
These schedules should be annual programmes of additional works, although for the first quarterly payment a schedule covering a shorter period will be sufficient.
The Federal Department of Transport and Regional Services will be administering delivery of the Programme online. A secure web site has been established to allow entry of essential information.
This is designed to speed up the delivery of funding to councils. Post facilities will be used where electronic access is not available.
The Federal Government is committed to working directly with Councils through Roads to Recovery to upgrade the local road network.
For further information on the administration of Roads to Recovery, please contact Andy Hrast, telephone (02) 6274 7271, email Andy.Hrast@dotrs.gov.au or Lindsay Jacob, telephone (02) 6274 7130, email Lindsay.Jacob@dotrs.gov.au
There is also a public Roads to Recovery web site at www.dotrs.gov.au/land/road/r2r/roads-to-recovery.htm which has additional information on the Programme.
