Updated
Gunnedah councillors will make a submission to the NSW Road Classification Review Independent Panel about the reclassification of eight local roads.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Councillors voted for this outcome at last Wednesday's meeting, which may see four of these roads change over to the state government's responsibility.
This includes Rangari Road, Black Stump Way, Grain Valley Road, and Bloomfield Street.
Others may be transferred into regional or local hands.
The motion to write the submission was moved by Cr Colleen Fuller and seconded by Cr Ann Luke.
Read also:
Earlier
Responsibility for some of the shire's roads, including Rangari Road, may soon change.
On Wednesday councillors will vote on whether to make a submission to the NSW Road Classification Review Independent Panel about the reclassification of eight local roads.
Gunnedah Shire Council's director of infrastructure services Jeremy Bartlett wrote in the business papers that the roads recommended for transfer to the state government were Rangari Road, Black Stump Way, Grain Valley Road, and Bloomfield Street.
All of these are labelled as 'high priority'.
Mr Bartlett has recommended that the council retain ownership of Rushes Creek Road, but have Bloomfield/Warrabungle/Boundary transferred to the state and reclassified from regional to state.
The following road changes will also be voted on:
- South Street (View Street to Abbott Street) from state to regional.
- Abbott Street (View Street to Conadilly Street) from state to regional.
- Conadilly Street (Abbott Street to Boundary Road) from state to regional.
- Conadilly Street (Warrabungle Street to Abbott Street) from state to local.
The changes would allow for further opportunities for grants to upgrade the roads.
"Council has an opportunity to present a submission for roads to be considered for reclassification, either up or down the hierarchy," Mr Bartlett wrote in the papers.
"This could allow council to have a local road reclassified as a regional road, which would then attract state funding through the Block/Repair Grant.
"Similarly, there may be a case for a regional road to be reclassified as a state road, at which point the management of that corridor would be transferred to Transport for NSW (TfNSW)."
Mr Bartlett wrote that changes to roads like Rangari Road would be beneficial where the current management seems unable to achieve the community's expectation, or where funding provide by "the state to council to allow council to manage a regional road is inadequate and financially unsustainable".
"By transferring ownership to the state, it should be easier for a potential upgrade to be considered within the wider state context, with access to the larger budget of TfNSW, which is not constrained by local government boundaries," he wrote.