Mayors welcome the success of campaign for road repairs fund

The funding announcement follows a successful campaign launched in November, 2022, by mayors from Hawkesbury, Hills, Hornsby, Penrith, Campbelltown and Wollondilly seeking urgent road repairs funding for metropolitan councils.

The NSW Government had previously announced it would provide $50 million to regional and rural councils to address their highest priority pothole requests.

The collective of western and north-western Sydney councils were excluded from the original funding program, despite each having rural areas and high numbers of potholes and road patching jobs - some seeing their highest-ever work requests.

Mr Perrottet, along with Deputy Premier and Regional NSW Minister Paul Toole, and Regional Transport and Roads Minister Sam Farraway, announced $220 million of funding would be spent in Greater Sydney.

This will be to help councils with heavy patching and pothole repair work after the state experienced record-breaking rain and multiple flooding disasters over many months.

A further $280 million has also been allocated to works in regional council areas.

The funding will be proportionate to the total distance of road network within each council's area.

The Greater Sydney mayors have welcomed the success of their campaign, with Hawkesbury City Mayor, councillor Sarah McMahon, thanking her fellow Greater Sydney and regional mayors for their joint advocacy.

"This is a fantastic outcome. Sydney and the Hawkesbury have been suffering from the worst potholes in living memory," she said.

"After six floods in three years, it has taken the combined efforts of many councils to make sure the voices of residents and motorists are finally heard.

"The challenges all our councils face in tackling the pothole problem are threefold - financing, the availability of road repair contractors, and the availability of road repair materials."

Cr McMahon said Hawkesbury Council expected to spend $1 million on pothole filling alone in the current financial year - the most it had ever spent in a single year.

"This is on top of the estimated $240 million in repairs to flood damaged roads in the Hawkesbury, and our routine roads renewal and upgrade program of $22.5 million," she said.

"Our Council teams have been working incredibly hard over the past few years repairing our damaged roads.

"We know there is a long road ahead but we are all committed to ensuring that motorists have safe roads to drive on when travelling too and from work, school and visiting friends and family."

Hills Shire mayor Dr Peter Gangemi (who initiated the campaign) and Hornsby Shire Council mayor Philip Ruddock, echoed similar sentiments.

Mr Farraway said the application process will be simple and the cash will be available immediately so councils can get on with the repairs.

"The new funding will start landing in councils' bank accounts within weeks so work can begin right away on repairing the essential roads locals, tourists and freight operators use every day," he said.

Funding under the $500 million Regional and Local Roads Repair Program is available to Local Government areas in both Greater Sydney and Regional NSW. Repair work must be carried out by 31 December 2023.