By Shelby Brooks
Cardinia Shire Council said it has received official confirmation that $109 million of committed funding for the Sealing the Hills roads program has been discontinued and withdrawn by the Federal Government.
On 10 January 2023, the council received a letter from Minister of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Catherine King MP, confirming that the vital unsealed roads funding had been reduced.
As part of the Sealing the Hills Road Project and Roads for Community Initiative, 110km of unsealed roads in Cardinia Shire and 187km in the Yarra Ranges would have been sealed between 2020 and 2029.
The funding of $300 million was the result of an advocacy partnership between Cardinia Shire Council and Yarra Ranges Council to improve unsealed roads.
The project was to be co-funded by property owners via a special charge scheme.
Earlier this month, Yarra Ranges Council confirmed it had received verbal confirmation that more than $100 million would be cut from the local Roads for the Community program, with $150 million announced in 2019 by the former Liberal government to seal 187 kilometres of unsealed roads in the Yarra Ranges by 2029.
The council will receive $47.7 million of the original $150 million promised.
Questions were first raised in November last year about the funding for the project after La Trobe MP Jason Wood slammed the Federal Government for “scrapping” the $300m road sealing project for the hills in the 2022-23 budget.
A spokesperson for the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts told the Gazette the same month that some existing infrastructure projects had been reviewed, and in some cases, reduced or discontinued in the October budget.
“This includes the Sealing Roads projects in the Dandenong Ranges for the Yarra Ranges and Cardinia Shire councils, where future projects have been discontinued,” they said at the time.
Cardinia Shire Council mayor Tammy Radford has now expressed her disappointment in the Federal Government’s decision in a statement released Tuesday 24 January.
“We are extremely disappointed about the Federal Government’s decision to withdraw committed funding for the vital unsealed roads project, ‘Sealing the Hills’,” she said.
“Despite our ongoing advocacy to secure the best outcomes for the community, calls to restore this funding in its entirety were left unanswered.”
Despite already commencing designs, environmental investigations, and consultations with residents, this funding cut means that the delivery of numerous roads packages by council is now not possible.
“We are understandably devastated on behalf of our communities in the Dandenong Ranges and surrounding townships, that we are now unable to deliver all road upgrades originally included in the program, as intended,” she said.
“These works were vital to the development of the existing townships in the Hills and would have greatly improved community safety and access to community facilities and amenities, while reducing dust, pollution, and maintenance issues.”
Annual progress payments were initially proposed by the Federal Government in 2019 and outlined that Cardinia Shire would receive $10 million in funding at this stage into the sealing program.
The council is currently ahead of the expected schedule, previously receiving $22 million in funding from the Federal Government.
A total of $41 million in funding has now been secured to deliver selected road packages currently underway.
“We will continue to prioritise improving our road network and advocating for future funding to seal roads within the Hills.”
The council is working to clarify the potential impacts that this funding cut will have on projects, Ms Radford said.
“We are committed to working closely with the community to build better local roads for the future, and we will be keeping our community informed as we know more.”
