This year’s National Local Roads and Transport Congress to be held in Mount Gambier, South Australia, from 16 to 18 November will have a focus on road safety. The Congress will be sending the message that ‘Better Roads are Safer Roads’ and will include the launch of the Australian Local Government Association’s campaign to renew the Roads to Recovery program; the primary source of Federal Government funding for local roads.
Councils around Australia are passing resolutions in support of the need to extend the Roads to Recovery program. The resolutions will form part of the Roads to Recovery renewal campaign launch at the Congress.
ALGA is encouraging all councils to attend to send a strong and united message to the Federal Government and the Opposition.The message has to be loud and clear: Roads to Recovery must be continued, made permanent and increased to a level that recognises the shortfall of funding on local roads of $1.2 billion annually.
On average, every day four people are killed and 80 are seriously injured on Australia’s roads. Every year about 1,500 lives are lost and 30,000 people are hospitalised as a result of crashes on Australian roads.
Everyone has been touched in some way by road crashes – road crashes cut lives short, leave many people with permanent injuries and cost the nation about $27 billion a year. One of the best ways to improve road safety is to improve the quality of roads.
For more information and to register your attendance at the Congress, go to www.alga.asn.au/roadscongress.
