ROADS are firmly in the spotlight for Gunnedah Shire Council, which will soon call on the state government to increase funding.

The council will submit a motion seeking action at Local Government NSW’s annual conference later this year.

As part of its push, the council will request LGNSW to call on the government to double ongoing recurrent funding from the Fixing Local Road and Regional Roads Programs to provide stability and certainty to councils to enable long-term planning and resourcing to occur with respect to roads.

As an alternative measure, the state government could also amend rate pegging restrictions to give councils the ability to raise the required revenue to maintain and renew transport infrastructure assets without the need to go through special rate variation processes, and have transport infrastructure assets operate in a similar manner to water, sewer and waste services on a full and reasonable cost recovery basis outside of the current general fund arrangements. Several shires throughout the state, including Gunnedah, have introduced special rate variations as councils face financial pressure due to rising costs as well as cost shifting to local government.

In a separate item at the council meeting, advocacy priorities were identified at the 2026 Local Roads Congress which was attended by Cr Rob Hooke, Cr Rob Hoddle and director of infrastructure services Jeremy Bartlett.

Among the priorities are the reduction of cost-shifting to councils, ensuring natural disaster funding arrangements allow resilience improvements to be included as a part of restoration works, and providing dedicated funding for proactive betterment works to improve the overall resilience of the road network.

Cr Hoddle provided an update on the congress and highlighted conversations with Minister for Roads Jenny Aitchison.

The reclassification of roads was a particular concern.

Cr Hoddle highlighted regional roads in the area which link Gunnedah with neighbouring shires including Warrumbungle, Narrabri, Tamworth and Orana local government areas.

“We shouldn’t be the ones that are picking up the bill,” he said.

“We really have to push this very hard.”

Cr Juliana McArthur thanked Crs Hoddle and Hooke for providing updates on the roads congress as well as comments by the Roads Minister about a reclassification system being reviewed.

“With respect, she did say that last year at the 2025 Roads Congress,” Cr McArthur said.

Cr McArthur suggested getting about six mayors and following up with the minister.

“I think that there is a bigger issue here, perhaps coming out of Treasury, that we really need to get a grip on,” she said.

“Why is it that council has been asking for many years for at least 1 per cent for further funding, and nothing really has come forward.

“And we’re now competing against not just regional councils, but also city councils for funding.”

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