The Werris Creek bypass gets a green light in NSW budget

"My biggest fear was that it would be cut with all the other cuts from the budget," Cr Hawkins said.

The $4.5 million needed to upgrade the southern access to Werris Creek Industrial Precinct was approved in the state budget on Tuesday, September 19, as part of the Restart NSW fund.

"This funding was crucial for us to go on with the project," Cr Hawkins said.

"We have to build a bridge over the access line on the other side, and that should alleviate a lot of the traffic problems coming and going from Werris Creek."

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Dr Hawkins said the next step would be fixing roads as part of the state budget's $390m emergency road repair fund, and looking to see if there was funding to upgrade the Quirindi to Tamworth and other roads.

"I know the Tamworth end was done in the last couple of years, but we've had very little done on our end and that is a major arterial road," he said.

"It's crucial for us as we depend on [our roads] to get our produce to the rail head and to the markets, and the roads are just getting heavier and heavier with traffic."

Cr Hawkins is yet to find out whether funding set aside for housing across the state will enable the council to turn their empty TAFE building into temporary accommodation.

He said the council had been flouting the idea of building an abattoir to employ more locals and attract workers to the region, but that they would first need to provide more housing.

"Housing is in desperately short supply here. There's virtually no houses for rent and a shortage of new houses being constructed," Cr Hawkins said.

"We have to do something in that space because if we don't start to grow with some of these industries then there will be nowhere for people to live."

Cr Hawkins also echoed the concerns of the Country Mayors' Association (CMA) by saying most of the state budget was allocated to Western Sydney, where NSW treasurer Daniel Mookhey grew up.

"There's a massive amount of spending in Sydney," Cr Hawkins said.

"A lot of wealth is coming out of this region that's paying the bills for the government.

"So, is that a case of spending all the money in the cities where the bulk of the voters are? Because that's not where the bulk of the wealth comes from, it comes from regions like ours."

CMA chief Jamie Chaffey said in a statement shortly after the budget was announced, that "compared with the $14 billion for Western Sydney already mentioned, regional NSW has $1.8 billion listed for new investment".

"There are no surprises, and nothing will help regional councils deal with the escalating costs, the increasing demands, and the massive tasks they are faced with," Cr Chaffey said.

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