The former mayor urged her colleagues to “fire up” advocacy for upgrades and place pressure on Roads Minister Luke Donnellan to deliver more cash to the south-west’s arterial road network. 

“As a regular user of the road, I am appalled at its condition,” Cr Gstrein said after raising the issue of Foxhow Road at Tuesday night’s council meeting. 

“There are huge drop-offs on the edge of the single-lane section, which makes getting on and off the road dangerous if you meet a car coming in the other direction,”she said. 

“The surface is potholed and rutted and the intersection with Gnarpurt Road is so slippery it’s like an ice rink in wet weather.” 

Cr Gstrein said she had replaced two tyres in recent weeks after hitting a pothole while travelling on the road.

“The tyre was bulging and when I took it in to get fixed, the man said ‘you’ve been on Foxhow Road’, so I’m obviously not the only one who’s had the problem,” she said. 

Cr Gstrein said the amount of traffic which uses the road as a link between the Hamilton and Princes highways, especially heavy vehicles, made it treacherous in its current condition. 

“It’s not about blaming the local VicRoads office, it’s about getting more funding directed into the south-west.” 

Mayor Chris O’Connor agreed, saying a lot of promises had been made about the road but not much had come to fruition. 

He said temporary fixes, including reducing the speed limit on the singe-lane section to 60 kilometres and hour, gave motorists a false sense of security. 

“I still think that is too fast to be passing a car on that section of road, let alone a truck,” Cr O’Connor said. 

“The long-suffering public have just about had enough.” 

In July last year VicRoads said it was developing a plan to upgrade the single-lane section at an estimated cost of $7 million. 

The road authority said at the time about 600 vehicles were using the road each day, including about 150 trucks.