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Ingram condemns Road Management BillThe Member for Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, has today condemned the passing of the Road Management Bill through the Legislative Assembly without amendments. By Craig Ingram - 2nd April 2004 - Back to News Rural councils and the Victorian Local Government Association have expressed serious concerns about the bill and the potential financial and legal implications that the new road management system will have.
Mr Ingram said that the new VicRoads definitions have condensed a four page agreement between the road authorities and local government representatives in 1989 into eight restrictive definitions of state funded roads.
"The definitions further extend the current city-centric economic road funding gerrymander that has destroyed the economic viability of rural and regional councils," Mr Ingram said.
"The Grants Commission allocates almost $100 million of Commonwealth money, allegedly to help Victorian Councils in most need but the current model of road funding gives millions of those dollars to metro councils.
"Some of these spend less than $10.00 per head on roads while some rural councils -- who have thousands of kilometres of unmade roads and spend over $300 per head of ratepayers money on roads -- struggle to maintain crumbling infrastructure.
"Rural ratepayers pay up to four times the level of rates. A Victorian Minister has admitted that some metropolitan councils get grants they do not need.
"This Bill will place further financial burdens on those councils with the least ability to pay.
"Under the changes in this Bill, the rural councils look certain into the future to be spending more of their limited resources on legal fees and court costs that should be going into road maintenance.
"I call on all regional and rural councils to rally and lobby the government, the MAV and their local MPs -- particularly Legislative Council members -- to have an indefinite continuation of the non-feasance defence and to address the inequitable VicRoads definitions and funding models," Mr Ingram said.
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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