Port Macquarie Hastings Mayor Adam Roberts has invited NSW Premier The Hon Chris Minns to personally visit Port Macquarie to view first-hand the region's greatest traffic bottleneck, the Wrights Road to Lake Road segment of the Oxley Highway.
The Wrights Road to Lake Road segment of the Oxley Highway is owned and managed by the NSW Government, through Transport for NSW (TfNSW). Mayor Roberts wrote to Premier Minns on Monday 17 February requesting a face-to-face meeting on site to discuss the matter.
Mayor Roberts said that since taking office in late 2024, he has already taken face-to-face meetings with representatives from TfNSW and the Regional Transport and Roads Minister, The Hon Jenny Aitchison, to push a case for urgent planning and funding support to remedy the areas most congested traffic bottleneck.
"Having met with all of the people responsible for this road corridor to this point, it is clear to me that no urgency in addressing this well-known congestion and infrastructure issue is being applied by the NSW Government," Mayor Roberts said.
"If there was a critical issue that our Council organisation wasn't addressing as a matter of urgency, then as Mayor, I would reasonably be asked to step in and provide detailed commentary, or to push a matter forward.
"As such, Premier Minns is ultimately responsible for the current situation at Wrights Road and Lake Road and it is therefore reasonable for me to request a face-to-face meeting on site, particularly given that there appears to be no appetite to add urgency to addressing this well-known issue."
Mayor Roberts said the Port Macquarie Hastings region is one of the largest and fastest growing regional areas of the Mid North Coast of NSW and with that comes pressures on Council to deliver the infrastructure required.
"The reality is, this road corridor is a NSW Government segment which is getting progressively worse, in an area that they already know has reached functional capacity a number of years ago. I hope that through a face-to-face meeting with the Premier on site, that we can discuss and progress immediate improvements whilst laying down a timeline for longer-term solutions to improve the traffic flow and remedy the congestion in this area."
