Federal Member for Nicholls, Sam Birrell MP confirmed five local councils in the electorate will share in almost $10 million in funding through phase four of the Local Road and Community Infrastructure (LRCI) program.
Mr Birrell said the money would be spent on improving each council’s local road networks and for the delivery of priority community infrastructure projects.
$500 million is being made available to councils across Australia with an additional $250 million targeted to supporting road projects in rural, regional, and outer urban areas.
“The Local Road and Community Infrastructure program was established by the Coalition Government, and this round will be critically important to municipalities in Nicholls,” Mr Birrell said. “The extremely wet weather and flooding in late 2022 has placed an additional burden on local government, with many roads requiring significant and costly upgrades over and above the scheduled maintenance they had planned for.”
Mr Birrell said more targeted funding would be required to repair and retore thousands of kilometres of rural roads.
“Guidelines and grant agreements are yet to be finalised, but I would urge the Government to ensure councils that were subject to disaster declarations are given priority access to the targeted $250 million fund,” Mr Birrell said.
Allocations under the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program (Phase 4) are:
•Moira Shire Council $2,544,893
•Campaspe Shire Council $2,622,795
•City of Greater Shepparton $2,033,496
•Mitchell Shire Council $1,174,256
•Strathbogie Shire Council $1,439,568.