Eurobodalla Mayor, Mat Hatcher, has called on the council, as a matter of urgency, to write to the Premier of NSW to advocate for increased funding to be provided by the NSW Government to Crown Lands and Forestry NSW to enable urgent maintenance and disaster recovery works on roads under their control, particularly those roads that provide access to resident’s properties.
Mr Mayor said today "The 2019-20 Black Summer Bushfires and eight declared natural disaster floods since have had a significant impact on roads in Eurobodalla. This includes those roads within the forests and those Crown roads used by residents to gain access to their homes.
"Maintenance responsibility for many of these roads normally falls to Forestry NSW if operating within a particular area, or the property owners benefitting.
"Whilst Forestry NSW has undertaken considerable work, the extent of recovery work still required following these extraordinary nine natural disasters is well beyond the resources available to them.
"Similarly, Crown Lands are not resourced to undertake maintenance of Crown roads, with that responsibility normally falling to the residents. A number of Eurobodalla residents currently live on these non-council maintained roads.
"Residents have recently contacted me directly to advise that the maintenance and recovery of these roads following these natural disasters are insufficient to provide reasonable access to their properties.
At todays meeting (Tuesday February 22nd, 2022) the Mayor appealed to his fellow councillors to support his motion to urge that the NSW Government allocate additional disaster recovery funding to the relevant NSW Government agencies to recover these non-Council maintained roads to a trafficable condition, including addressing the roadside vegetation regrowth and hazardous trees.
"My recommendation is that Council, as a matter of urgency, write to the Premier of NSW Hon Dominic Perrottet MP to advocate for an increased allocation of disaster funds to Forestry NSW and Crown Lands to recover the road network utilised by residents to access their properties."
