November 15, 2022
Toowoomba Regional Council is setting set aside $10 million over the next five years to upgrade “lower order roads” to bring them up to a minimum access gravel road standard.
Cr Carol Taylor admitted this amount of funding would not be enough to address all of the formed/maintained, unformed/maintained and unformed/unmaintained roads in the region, but said it was an indication of Council’s desire to improve the quality of the roads in all areas.
“The reality is we have the second longest road network of any local government area within Queensland and that requires a considerable amount of funding to maintain and upgrade, as 89 per cent of our road network is designated to management by local government,” Cr Taylor said.
“The wet weather events over the past year have also significantly exacerbated the condition of the roads and it will take a substantial amount of time to complete flood recovery works.
“In addition to the maintained road network, we also have a large number of unformed and unmaintained roads due to legacy issues – including those from the varied development policies of the former Councils – that would be good to upgrade if it’s affordable.
“In a perfect world everybody would have everything they want, but unfortunately we can only do so much with the budget we have.
“Funding for these roads is primarily made up of rates received from our residents so we always need to ensure we are looking at what has greater benefit for our entire community.
“The funding of $10 million will go towards improving the condition of our lower order road matters over the next five years, with a review set to take place following this period.
“Our communities need to understand that other Council priorities will be delayed due to this commitment.”
At the Ordinary Meeting of Council on November 15, Councillors voted in favour of the following recommendation:
- That appropriate processes and definitions be included in the review of the Toowoomba Region Planning Scheme to achieve the performance outcome that subsequent dwelling applications must have direct property access to a road defined in Council’s Road Register as at least a minimum access standard gravel (rural) or sealed (urban) road maintained by Council.
- That Council prioritise $2 million annually within the sustainability target, commencing 2023-24, toward an initial five-year program of works to rectify existing Lower Order Road matters to achieve minimum access standard road for Lower Order Roads, defined in Council’s Road Register as formed/maintained, unformed/maintained, and unformed/unmaintained, to achieve a minimum access standard gravel road defined in Council’s Road Register.
- That, prior to 2023-24 budget formation, Council considers at a future Infrastructure Committee Meeting, a variety of capital delivery and maintenance methods in an effort to determine a sustainable approach for the rural (gravel) roads including reviewing Council Policy 2.21 Road Network Upgrade and Extension (January 2012).
- That road signage is implemented at the discretion of the road manager (General Manager, Infrastructure Services Group).
