The recent announcement that the Roads to Recovery program will be renewed for a further four years has been welcomed by the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA).
“Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, deserves to be strongly congratulated for creating and now renewing this critically important infrastructure program,” said ALGA President, Councillor Mike Montgomery. “It’s a boon for Australia and will help Councils continue to address road maintenance problems that have been dogging Local Government for decades,” Councillor Montgomery said.“The decision to renew the program beyond its expiry date of June 2005 is in keeping with the findings of last year’s program review and the ‘Renew R2R’ campaign run by ALGA, State Local Government Associations and Councils across the country over the past 12 months.
“ALGA is delighted that a further $1.2 billion will be committed to local roads over four years. The Government wants one third of this funding – $100m a year – to be committed to projects where Councils work together on regional local road initiatives. This is a significant change to the current program and ALGA will need to carefully assess the impact of this proposal.
“New funding announced today ($265m in the first year) for the AusLink regional transport pool is also welcomed by ALGA. Local Government looks forward to working with the Australian Government over the coming months to hammer out the details of the new arrangements for Roads to Recovery Mark II.”
