TENTERFIELD Shire Council is set to receive an extra $3 million in funding to fix potholes and repair damaged roads in the region.
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The NSW Nationals announced this week a $500 million Regional and Local Roads Repair Program to fix potholes on council roads across the state.
Local Nationals candidate Alex Rubin said roads were the number one issue residents across the electorate were talking about in the lead-up to the state election next month.
Tenterfield will receive $3,071,634 after an initial $579,000 under the NSW Government's $50 million Fixing Local Roads Pothole Repair Round in November.
In December, The NRMA revealed a $94.5 million backlog of funding needed by councils in the New England and North West regions to maintain local roads, as part of a state-wide backlog of $1.9 billion for 2020/21.
Tenterfield Council had a backlog of $18.2 million, second behind Glen Innes who were at $19.9 million.
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Tenterfield is part of the Lismore electorate, held by Labor MP Janelle Saffin, who said it was Councils' hard work in pulling together the submissions for the program.
"I spent much of last year pursuing the NSW Government about the parlous state of roads across the Lismore Electorate, and to honour their 2019 election commitment showcased by the Nationals to take back 15,000 kilometres of regional roads," Ms Saffin said.
"I have to ask where that is at four years later, with not one kilometre taken back into State hands."
"We are also dealing with historic neglect here because in 2016-2017 the NRMA identified a roads maintenance backlog of $151.7 million in local government areas within the Lismore Electorate, so nearly $10 million is a small amount but a start.
"Let us hope the other funds flow. It will be much more than the $151.7 million figure of 2016-2017.
"It is amazing what an election can do to exercise minds in Sydney and it would be even better to get the full funding we need."
Nationals Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Sam Farraway said: "After we announced our initial $50 million injection to help fix potholes across regional NSW in November a number of councils sat down with me and asked for additional help and funding".
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