Main Arm meeting with Council staff reveals state of rural road repairs
Main Arm residents were disappointed to hear from Byron Council’s senior staff at a public meeting last Thursday night that their dangerous and rapidly deteriorating roads might not get repaired until the end of 2025 at the earliest.
The open and frank discussion at Kohinur Hall between Council staff and residents revealed the complex, confusing and ever-changing bureaucracy that hampers restoring, maintaining or improving the shire’s crumbling road network.
The event was hosted by Main Arm Disaster Recovery (MADR).
Residents say they were informed by Council that a previous state government funding application under the NSW Betterment Program for Main Arm Road had not been successful, despite the clear evidence that the road is becoming undriveable. Other valleys such as Wilsons Creek were successful in the grants.
Crews unable to keep up
The meeting also highlighted an inadequate roads budget for the entire shire, and road crews were unable to keep up with the estimated 609km road network.
Only one councillor, Duncan Dey (Greens), was present as an audience member. He is not recontesting the September election.
Residents reminded Council staff of the dangerously unacceptable conditions, and questioned why road maintenance was virtually non-existent, given it has been over two years since the 2022 floods.
And of the roadworks undertaken in recent times, residents said that they were not a long-term solution, and questioned its value for money.
Director, Infrastructure Services, Phil Holloway, opened the night with an acknowledgement that Council could do better with its communication with the public over how it manages roads and infrastructure.
Reliant on grants
He shared his frustrations that applying for grants was time consuming and did not lead to better outcomes. Council’s yearly budget contributes very little towards the huge task of fixing the shire’s roads, and Council is largely reliant on government grants.
Holloway later told The Echo that Council is waiting on approval of more than $14m of 2022 flood grants, with the application being extended until December 2024.
‘We are sick and tired of seeing the same infrastructure getting damaged’, Holloway told the meeting.
He told the meeting that he had been in the job for 16 years, and that the damage bill from 2022 floods was $330m, compared to the previous 2017 disaster that cost $20m in repairs.
Holloway said the road network was part of discussions around a rate rise a few years ago, called a Special Rate Variation (SRV).
He said while staff advocated for a rise to maintain the road network, that path was not chosen by councillors at the time. ‘They went with 7.5 per cent’.
Council’s Manager Infrastructure Recovery, Evan Elford, told residents that the process to receive funding from the state government includes providing before and after photos of every piece of road, bridge or culvert. Yet some of the ‘before’ information/photos do not exist.
Additionally, it was revealed that state bureaucrats send project proposals back to Council for adjustment, without formally rejecting them, and Council, ‘cannot appeal until an actual decision is made’.
Failure of processes
In a frank admission of the failure of government processes, Mr Elford said, ‘The NSW government said they would build back better, but we are building back exactly as before’.
Sam Frumpui, Manager Works, acknowledged that Council road maintenance crews – there are two – had been in the area twice in the last financial year, which cost around $200,000 to $300,000.
He said there was a budget of just $195,000 per year for rural drainage, while around $2m per year is pegged for rural road maintenance.
Additionally, he said that extra approvals are needed from NSW Fisheries to clear blocked causeways.
Resident Matthew Lambourne made the point that he has repeatedly cleared culverts and drains and rung Council to remove the debris, but has not been replied to.
As a result, the debris goes back and gets stuck again in the next rain.
And given the new walking trails are attracting visitors to the area, Holloway was asked whether NSW National Parks were asked to contribute for road funding, to which he said ‘no’.
Local state MP, Tamara Smith later told The Echo that NSW National Parks are not required to do so.
Smith told residents via speaker phone at the meeting that she believes the new CEO of the Reconstruction Authority, Mal Lanyon, may be amenable to providing the much needed $8m in funds to address a section of Main Arm Road.
She also encouraged lobbying federal MP Justine Elliot (Labor) on the matter, given road grants are also administered by her government.
One resident later told The Echo that ‘Main Arm was the first to be targeted for illegal dwellings, and is the last to get its roads fixed’.
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