Gunnedah shire mayor Jamie Chaffey said the council was waiting on the outcome of a $9.8 million application under the Fixing Country Roads program to seal and widen Clifton Road and restore the decommissioned Maitland Street bridge.

If funded, 13.5 kilometres of Clifton Road would be sealed and five kilometres, from Hoggarth Street, Maitland Street and Bulunbulun Road, would be widened.

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When the NVI spoke to local farmers, they said while it would be good if the works could be funded and carried out, they believe there are other priorities.

Farmer Sam Craig believes Bulunbulun Road is "the most used, unsealed road in the shire and doesn't get any attention at all".

"For the amount of traffic it gets, it should be better maintained," he said.

"It's down to black soil in one spot. They just will not put gravel on it. They were supposed to put gravel on it about 20 years ago.

"I'd like to see one of the councillors bring their vehicle out and travel 100km on it and see if it's satisfactory and acceptable."

Mr Craig said the road was graded recently but it was "only good for a few days then the potholes come back again".

He said he had given up asking the council to do something because "it falls on deaf ears".

"We'd be better off keeping rates and buying a roller and grader and doing it ourselves," he said.

David Tudgey also lives and works on Bulunbulun Road and says it is "atrocious".

He said the high volume of traffic, including trucks, only increased during the wheat harvest and the dust and loose gravel were a safety risk to drivers and children on the school bus.

"If the [Shenhua] mine goes ahead, there will end up being an accident," he said.

Cr Chaffey said Bulunbulun Road was "on our unfunded priority list".

Mr Tudgey said Clifton Road definitely needs some work because a lot of trucks use it in the cotton season and "it's bloody dangerous in the dust".

The replacement of the Maitland Street bridge would also be helpful to Mr Tudgey who has to use the Kamilaroi Highway if he wants to move machinery to one of his other properties.

"We've got to take machinery up onto the highway, which can be dangerous. We go down the Pullaming Stock Route to get to one of our other blocks and if that bridge is out and river is flooded, we've got to go up onto the highway," Mr Tudgey said.

"You've got to have pilot vehicles front and back and when you're going over the bridge, you pull the trucks and traffic up.

"And trucks, if they're going out to the gin on Clifton Road, they have got to go onto the highway then straight way turn back down to the village."

Fellow Breeza farmer John Hamparsum would like to see the Pullaming Road sealed because it's "the shortest way to Gunnedah from Breeza" and "the quality of the road is one of the worst in the district".

"[The council] don't put money back into Pullaming," he said.

"To have dirt roads here in such a prosperous area, we just can't understand it ... other areas seem to have a lot more tar roads per head of population than this shire does."

While Mr Hamparsum welcomes any works on Breeza's roads, he said Clifton Road was not usable in all weather and is cut off when Werries Creek gully floods, as it has the past fortnight.

The gully lies just past the Simson Bridge, which was replaced in 2017.

He said if the council was willing to spend money to tar Clifton Road then they should consider putting a bridge over the gully.

"Longpoint bridge goes out [when it floods] so people have to go around that way if they want to get from one side of the plain to the other. Otherwise, you have to go to Carroll and all the way out to the other side for people who have properties on both sides of the river," he said.

Mr Hamparsum's neighbour, Andrew Riordan, uses the road every day and said it was "definitely a worry" that one of his children has to travel on the school bus on the road.

He said the condition of the road gets "pretty bad" and was difficult to maintain.

"There are patches on it where you have to slow right down to pass through or the car gets out of control," he said.

He said both Pullaming and Clifton roads become "extremely busy" at grain and cotton harvest and "trucks non-stop go to carroll gin or silos all over the place".

"When you add trucks onto it, it becomes more dangerous. They chop [the road] up a lot more than a car would," he said.

Tar on the Pullaming would also reduce Mr Riordan's travel time. If he takes the Kamilaroi Highway to Gunnedah, it is about 8-10km longer than if he travels the Pullaming Road.

He said it could also reduce traffic on the highway.

Cr Chaffey said the council had previously submitted an application for Clifton Road and the Maitland Street bridge but it was unsuccessful.

He said the works cannot be completed unless all three tiers of the government come to the party.

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