Cobar Shire Council was represented at the annual Local Roads Congress at Parliament House in Sydney last week.
Mayor Jarrod Marsden, Council’s general manager Peter Vlatko and Cr Julie Payne, a member of Council’s roads committee, attended the meeting last Monday.
Cr Marsden said the conference was very well attended by councils from across the state.
“We heard speeches from the Minister for Roads John Graham, Regional Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison, and both their shadow counterparts, Natalie Ward and Dave Layzell,” Cr Marsden said.
“A little surprisingly both were fairly complementary of each other with regards to ongoing projects being started and completed across different governments in power.
“I was pleased to hear that the old “first mile/last mile” concept is being looked at again,” he said.
“While it’s obvious to spend money where the major population lives, the cost of living issue demands that money is spent from the origin point of where Sydney gets its meat, grain, fruit and vegetables from.
“It’s no good having the last 50km beautiful if the first 750km is all but undrivable.
“One major point that all councils made was the need for more flexibility around flood damage funding so that councils can add other money to it so that the roads, culverts, bridges etc can be improved to prevent the damage happening again.
“At the moment the money is based around returning assets only to being fundamentally usable again.”
Cr Marsden said they also heard from industry experts on a variety of topics including the expansion of electric cars.
“There are a list of positives, but the issues around getting the current technology to work in the bush still has a lot of boxes to tick before it becomes attractive to councils and businesses,” Cr Marsden said.
He said they heard information about a successful AI trial in Griffith which may have positive implications for pothole management in the Cobar Shire.
“The conference was also a very good networking opportunity and it was valuable to pick the brains of a lot of mayors, councillors, and industry professionals on what is working for them and how they have overcome similar issues to what we see,” Cr Marsden said…see this week’s edition for full report.
