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Publish Date: 21 August 2023 Buloke Shire Council welcomes the announcement last week that the State and Federal Government are coming together to deliver a $9.4m Council Priority Betterment Program.
Council has been advocating heavily on the back of the October 2022 flood event for realistic funding for repairing local roads from flood damage.
At the time of the flood, Federal Government funding models meant that damaged roads could only been reinstated to the level of service they were at when they were damaged.
Council immediately commenced advocating to the Federal Government for ‘Betterment’ works to be included in the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements funding scheme to enable Council to reconstruct assets to a more disaster resilient standard than that of its pre-disaster function.
Mayor Cr Alan Getley welcomed the announcement, noting there is still more support needed.
“The announcement of the Priority Betterment Program demonstrates that Buloke and other hugely affected Councils have the ear of government. Whilst we welcome the announcement of the fund, there is a lot of work to be done in Buloke and we need all the support we can garner.
“Council has a road network of some 5,300 kilometres with a further 747 kilometres of State Government controlled road within Buloke Shire Council our damage bill is deep into the tens of millions of dollars”, Cr Getley said.
Council continues to work alongside the community, government agencies, local Catchment Management Authorities, and the Bureau of Meteorology to understand and plan for the reconstruction of assets to a more disaster resilient standard than that of its pre-disaster function.
Council advocates for its community on a range of issues, programs, and projects. View Council’s Advocacy Strategy.
End release For further information contact Manager Customer Engagement, 1300 520 520 or buloke@buloke.vic.gov.au