OPPOSITION leader, Matthew Guy, chose the notoriously, potholed ridden and crumbling edged Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road to announce the biggest road funding package in the state’s history, of $10 billion every year for ten years.

On Wednesday at 10am, Mr Guy joined local residents, road users and South West Coast MP, Roma Britnell, who has campaigned heavily since entering Parliament in Opposition in 2015 for more road funding, to make the announcement.

Mr Guy said the commitment by the Opposition, hoping to be elected to government on November 26, will be funded by consolidated revenue.

“I think this road is probably the epicentre of the problem when it comes to road maintenance funding in this state,” he said.

“Road maintenance funding has been cut by the Andrews government – particularly over the last few years – $200 million has been removed.

“As a consequence, our roads are falling apart – not just in outer Melbourne but particularly in country and regional Victoria.

“My solution (is) $1 billion each and every year for ten years.

“There are so many examples of unsafe roads that they are endangering safety.

“Some of the potholes are so severe – you can’t tell me that they have not been responsible for some of the road accidents.”

Mr Guy said that as part of the investment, there would also be a review of construction standards to increase accountability of VicRoads and contractors. and a reduction in red and green tape that often escalates construction costs.

He said there would also be an audit of all state-managed roads.

“This Labor Government had eight years to do something about it and they have not – the premier has been there longer than Steve Bracks, longer than Jeff Kennett,” Mr Guy said.

“It is unsafe, it is not right, and it needs to be fixed.

“No matter what lies they say – they can spin it any way they like – the road maintenance funding that he cut, is now endangering safety and I intend to fix it.

“If (the government) is lowering speed limits rather than fixing roads, their priorities are all wrong.

“The premier made an announcement for country Victoria in Wantirna – I mean how ridiculous.

“We need to do better as a state, and I think Victorians deserve better.”

Earlier this year, the Victorian Opposition held a state-wide survey to find Victoria’s top 10 worst roads, with Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road coming in at number six.

Ms Britnell’s impassioned pleas to the State Government to fund roads repairs and maintenance in her electorate have largely fallen on deaf ears and even lead to her being ejected from question time in parliament.

When responding to Ms Britnell’s adjournment matter in April regarding Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road, Roads minister, Ben Carroll, said that accidents that occurred on that road in the five years to December 2020, were not caused by poor road conditions.

Local resident, Adam Fry, who lives on Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road and whose family run a transport company from it, had a serious accident on the road in 2011 – he claims was due to the poor road conditions.

“I lost control on a bit of bad road and hit a tree and broke my pelvis in five places,” he said.

“It wasn’t great – unfortunately that didn’t even get the road looked at.

“(The Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road) has been in an awful state for my whole life – it is in desperate need of repair, and we think it is overdue.”

Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road is a 75-kilometre carriageway gazetted for B-double and road train use that Mr Fry’s family’s company trucks are driven on every single day. 

“There’s vehicles on this road all the time – but it’s not fit for purpose.

“Unfortunately to get it looked at, someone is going to have to die.”

Ms Britnell said Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road is critical to food and fibre transportation and given the district’s contribution as Victoria’s largest food and fibre region by value to the economy, in a globally competitive market, major improvements to the road are long overdue.

She said the annual $1bn in funding would go a long way to make sure roads were built and maintained properly.

“They need to be built to a standard and we will make sure that it is adhered to,” she said.

“We know our roads are in an incredible state of disrepair.

“We need to hold the workmanship to account, to standards that stand for decades, not fall apart within weeks.

“This is what we get when have a government that only thinks about the city.

“Twenty five percent of Victorians live in regional and rural Victoria, so we are going to make sure they get at least 25 per cent of their share of funding instead of the 13 per cent they get under the Labor Government.”

Lowan MP, Emma Kealy, said the current government had consistently neglected roads and cut funding, forcing country people to drive on dangerous surfaces that are crumbling at the edges and riddled with potholes.

“Roads such as the Glenelg Highway, Coleraine-Edenhope Road and Mortlake-Ararat Road are all in desperate need of funding to ensure they can be brought up to a safe standard,” she said.

“The Andrews Labor Government knows this, but refuses to provide the required funding, instead wasting money on cost blowouts on metropolitan projects.

“This $10 billion investment will deliver longer-term contracts to promote innovation, give contractors certainty to invest in better equipment and allow for strategic maintenance planning.

“It means Victorians won’t have to put up with band-aid solutions that only last weeks or months until the next heavy rain.”

Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) president, Emma Germano, said years of neglect and underfunding had left Victoria’s regional road network in a ruinous state and in desperate need of investment.

The VFF called on both sides of politics to commit to funding certainty for regional road maintenance, declaring the terrible condition of country roads had reached crisis levels. 

 “Speak to anyone living in regional Victoria and they’ll likely have one thing in common – their local roads are dodgy and dangerous,” Ms Germano said.

 “More than 50 per cent of all road fatalities occur in regional Victoria, despite it being home to (one quarter) of the state’s population.

“We won’t accept that.”