Council delivered a comprehensive and sobering report into the state of Hawkesbury's roads at last Tuesday night's Council meeting.
The report, which was called for at the September meeting by Mayor Sarah McMahon, provides a Hawkesbury-wide overview of the state of the roads, the internal and external issues contributing to the roads including systemic and structural issues within Council, a pathway towards overcoming these problems, and most importantly a commitment to resolving these issues to ensure delivery of a modern-standard road network.
Council allocates 40 per cent of its budget every year to managing 1063km of roads – the largest capital expenditure in the budget by a wide margin.
However, the report concedes years of outdated and ineffective road maintenance and delivery practises has largely contributed to the state of the roads, including the failure to effectively collect and utilise real-life data over a long period of time, leading to the inefficient application of resources and funding, and poor practises. These issues have then been exacerbated by six flood events in three years.
Recovery of these roads is now being hampered not by a lack of money or resolve by the Council and staff, but by shortages in the availability of contractors and materials due to a high demand right across Sydney and NSW for flood recovery work.
Mayor McMahon said Council was heeding the lessons learned within the past three years and had already made significant inroads into not just repairing roads but also improving service delivery for the future.
"There is no short-term fix. This is a long-term plan," Clr McMahon said.
"It is the most important thing that we have to do, because as a Council we are here to deliver services to our community.
"Right now the job is bigger than us, but we are going to fix it. Significant progress has been made over the past 12 months to ramp up the delivery of the capital works program and our expenditure on road maintenance.
"Our capital expenditure this financial year is $38 million - almost double compared to the last five years. In this last financial year we have seen asset renewal productivity of 150% - double the ratio of the previous year.
"What that means is our staff have been working exceptionally hard at meeting their targets in an exceptionally difficult environment. Our situation is not through the lack of effort of our hard-working Council staff, rather the systems and processes within which they have been working."
Changes already implemented at Council in the last 12 months include:
- A new internal structure that supports bringing our roads up to a modern standard
- Commenced a service review of our outdoor operations – including better data and tracking
- Better flow of information for keeping our community informed
- Internal audit of our asset management processes
Mayor McMahon encouraged the community to thoroughly read the report, which can be viewed here:
www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au/your-council/council-meetings-and-agendas/business-papers (11 October Agenda)
Council provides a daily updated list of road maintenance and repair projects for residents at www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au/emergency/flood-emergency/flood-project-updates
Residents are encouraged to report potholes and road damage at www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au/_resources/forms/roads-reporting-form
