Macedon Ranges roads are set to get more than $7 million of upgrades.
About $7.3 million has been allocated to road rehabilitation in the council’s 2017-18 budget, which was passed last Wednesday.
Resealing is on the agenda for a number of roads, including Tylden Springhill Road, Portingales Lane in Romsey and Hamilton Road in New Gisborne.
Councillor Andrew Twaits, speaking about the budget at a special council meeting on June 21, said roads hadn’t received adequate funding in previous years.
“I think over the last decade, there’s been an under-investment in areas like our sealed roads network,” Cr Twaits said.
Results from Macedon Ranges’ Community Satisfaction Survey 2017 showed that respondents were dissatisfied with the region’s roads.
Maintenance of sealed local roads received an index score of 48 out of 100, higher than the large rural shire average of 43, but lower than the statewide average of 53.
Maintenance of unsealed roads got a score of 42 – a four point drop from last year’s 46.
The maintenance of unsealed roads was identified as the area that required the most attention – its importance was given a score of 79.
Northern Victoria MP Wendy Lovell has called for Roads Minister Luke Donnellan to “provide additional funding to the Macedon council – as well as other local councils in Northern Victoria – to help with much-needed local road maintenance”.
“During a recent meeting, Macedon council raised with me that it is struggling to cover the cost of maintenance of their local road network,” she said.
