Regional Victoria continues to be riddled by new potholes, with new statistics highlighting a staggering increase in reported potholes of up to 178% in the west of the State.
Our President Brett Hosking said the findings reported by the Herald Sun paint a worrying reality that many drivers and regional Victorians face every day.
“The tragic reality is you are much more likely to lose your life when driving on country roads when compared to driving in the city.”
“When you’ve got pothole reports in the west of Victoria surging by 178 per cent, you’ve got an enormous and dangerous issue.”
“Drivers are expected to maintain road worthy cars. It’s time for cars to drive car worthy roads to ensure drivers aren’t playing a daily game of roads roulette.”
“There can be no doubting that the continued underfunding and total neglect of our regional roads is costing lives. We will never accept this and the buck must stop with the government,” Mr Hosking said.
Ahead of this year’s Victorian Budget, the VFF is calling for a sustained and future thinking plan to fix our crumbling road and transport infrastructure, including $250 million to be provided to local councils to repair and upgrade local roads, with a focus on ensuring efficient ‘first and last mile’ access to farm businesses.
This local road investment would need to be coupled with significant uplift in funding for state- and federal-funded roads.
“The longer you ignore the problem, the worse it gets…and it can’t get much worse.”
“Not only are our roads a huge safety issue, they are a massive economic handbrake on Victoria. Everyone loses when we can’t efficiently move freight and the wear and tear on vehicles is sky-high.”
“We’re calling on the Victorian Government to genuinely invest to fix and maintain the mess that is our regional road network.”
“We need genuine leadership and real investment that delivers safe roads, thriving local economies, and fair treatment for country Victorians,” Mr Hosking said.