Lismore City Council’s $500k cash splash on potholes

Lismore council responds to urgent road and pothole repairs with a $500k cash splash.

Mark Goulding surveys potholes at the back of his business, Dennys Upholstery in Phyllis Street, South Lismore.

Lismore City Mayor Steve Krieg has announced an extra $500,000 of funding for emergency pothole repairs to tackle the regions worst roads.

“My team and I were elected on a platform of fixing our road network, and that’s what we are doing,” Mayor Krieg said.

Mr Krieg said the first job of newly appointed general manager John Walker was to find money in the existing budget to start on fixing roads.

“Both the Council and John have delivered with a pothole repair program that will put a dent in the list of our most urgent roads in need of repair,” Mr Krieg said.

“This is about listening to our community and prioritising how Council spends ratepayers’ money.”

He said council are also lobbying the State Government with the aid of State MP Janelle Saffin for a large one-off grant to start tackling the $97 million road maintenance backlog that the current council have inherited.

“I have already met with the NSW Minister Regional Transport and Roads Sam Farraway, and although no promises have been made, I am always hopeful.

“We have a long way to go, but by working together this Council can achieve a lot.”

Pothole repairs will be carried out on the following roads over the next two months.

Earlier

South Lismore upholsterer Mark Goulding says the cavernous potholes in the back of his Phyllis Street business are in desperate need of lasting repair.

It comes as state government data reveals 77 per cent of regional roads in NSW have exceeded their design lifespan.

Further, it rates about 2000 kilometres, or 11.7 per cent, of regional roads as poor or very poor.

The most recent figures show the maintenance backlog for roads was valued at $2.955 billion, according to the Regional and Outer Metropolitan Asset and Service Plan.

Even though Lismore City Council has received more than $45 million in funding across multiple funding programs since 2019, a significant backlog has impeded progress in getting on top of the problem.

Mr Goulding, who manages Dennys Upholstery and Outdoor Blinds said the road behind their business was in shocking condition.

“Council did come and patch parts of it but it’s the drainage as well as the potholes,” Mr Goulding said.

Potholes on Jiggi Road, Lismore.

Lismore MP Janelle Saffin said she was lobbying NSW Government for an extra $25 million over five years to get the council’s roads into better shape.

Ms Saffin said she had written to newly-promoted NSW Minister Regional Transport and Roads Sam Farraway late last year to emphasise the need for a special roads package.

“Each local government area has its particular concerns and for the Lismore local government area it is the state of the roads and the pothole hazards,” Ms Saffin said.

Tony Williams of Destination Motorcycles with a smashed rim from a local pothole.

Destination Motorcycles owner Tony Williams said Lismore’s road surfaces were bad.

“We get wheels like this in here all the time,” he said as he held onto a damaged motorcycle rim.

“I was coming to work the other morning in the car and hit a pothole I didn’t see and thought the suspension was going to drop out of the car.”

A council spokesman said an online road maintenance form had been set up for residents to report urgent repairs.

“We prefer notification through our website as it goes straight into our system and does not need to be manually re-entered,” he said.

“Roads we are planning to work on over this week are: Fredericks Road, Casino Street, Leycester Road, Nimbin Road and Jiggi Road.”

Requests for road maintenance can be accessed here.

A Transport for NSW spokesman said the NSW Government was investing $500 million to help regional councils fix roads.

“The Australian Government has committed an additional $191 million, ensuring even more regional communities get funding, faster,” he said.