Victorian government skips south-west for initial local road safety funding

The government announced the first 11 municipalities to get funding under the Safe Local Roads and Streets Program on August 11, with five Melbourne councils and six regional councils named, but Surf Coast Shire was the only south-west council named.

The funding will pay for councils to work with the Department of Transport and the Transport Accident Commission to "identify, plan, develop and deliver" road safety upgrades on local roads.

"The $210 million package will design and deliver safety upgrades for communities including raised crossings, intersection upgrades, speed cushions, kerbing upgrades, pedestrian islands, safer speeds, roundabouts and other vital safety improvements," a government spokesperson said.

South West Coast MP Roma Britnell said Glenelg, Moyne and Corangamite Shires were all glaring omissions in the announcement.

"We know the South West coast has the most dangerous roads in the state. What's the rationale for leaving it out?" Ms Britnell said.

"I can't believe the government is so out of touch it doesn't understand it's missed the highest priority areas."

Ms Britnell said the state government's neglect of the major roads under its direct control in the south-west had sent more and more of the heavy trucks that traverse the region each day onto the smaller local roads, compounding the problem.

Polwarth MP Richard Riordan said he didn't understand how the government had arrived at the 11 councils chosen for stage one.

"All the south-west municipalities have been advocating strongly for road funding, so why have we missed out?" Mr Riordan said.

He and Ms Britnell also criticised the decision to allocate funding to identifying and planning road upgrades.

Ms Britnell said the Liberals had brought in a country roads and bridges program a decade ago when they were last in power.

"This announcement doesn't recognise councils already know the spots that need safety upgrades, they understand the local environment, so more planning would be a waste of time and money," she said.

"This says they're going to have to identify the areas, but we know the councils are ready to go in and fix problem intersections."

Mr Riordan said the government needed to get on and do the repair work.

"The government prioritise everything except doing the actual work. We need to get rid of the 40 km and 60 km signs, we don't need more planning," he said.

"The backlog of road maintenance projects is so chronic in our region, we know exactly where the money needs to be spent.

"Meanwhile, we know the overall cut to road maintenance is 45 per cent over the past two years. This announcement is window dressing at best, a cruel joke at worst.

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