The Hunter region will share in close to $9 million dollars in Federal Government funding as part of the Local Road and Community Infrastructure Program (LRCI Program).
On Friday 22nd May, the Australian Government committed $500 million to the program, the Hunter region receiving $8,816,782 in funds, aiming to support jobs, businesses and the resilience of local economies.
Each Hunter LGA Council received:
- Cessnock $1,065,399
- Lake Macquarie Council $1,752,388
- Maitland $872,757
- Musswellbrook, $577,898
- Newcastle $1,146,471
- Port Stephens $780,527
- Singleton $816,085
- Upper Hunter $1,230,434
- Dungog $574, 823
Councils will be able to access the funding from July 1st, to support priority local road and community infrastructure projects.
They will need to complete all project works by June 30th 2021 to receive their full share of the funding, and demonstrate that projects are additional to their pre-COVID-19
work program for 2020-21.
The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications
will be consulting with local government organisations to finalise arrangements, before Councils will identify local projects
in their area.
Federal Member
for Newcastle Sharon Claydon has welcomed the $1.14 million for road projects in Newcastle.
“The funding
will support priority projects from a list submitted to the Government in
March,” Ms Claydon said.
“I was very
concerned that this could turn into another sports rorts disaster so I wrote to
the Deputy Prime Minister to back the bid and call for a fair distribution of
these public funds.”
Ms Claydon said
that while the modest roads infrastructure funding was welcome, it was still
disappointing the Morrison Government excluded council workers from the JobKeeper
program, forcing the State Government to fill the breach.
“I absolutely
welcome this funding which will help stimulate local economic activity,” Ms
Claydon said.
“It’s still
unfortunate that the Government didn’t recognise the important of local
economies and local jobs when it excluded council workers from the JobKeeper
program.”
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| Image Credit: NSW Government |
