It was indicated in the federal Budget that Roads to Recovery funding will be increased by $50 million per year from 2019/20.

Narrabri mayor Conrad Bolton said the additional $50 million was a “drop in the ocean” when it came to funding the nation’s roads.

“Roads to Recovery is a very handy program,” Cr Bolton said.

“But it hasn’t gone far enough.”

Cr Bolton estimated $10 billion had been raised from the federal fuel excise and said consumers were not seeing enough of that revenue being reinvested into road infrastructure.

Tamworth mayor Col Murray welcomed the move to boost Roads to Recovery funding but admitted he was not sure “how much was enough” when it came to funding road maintenance for local government.

“With Tamworth Regional Council, we’ve got a massive amount of roads projects coming up over the next four years, so it’s great to see an increase in Roads to Recovery funding,” Cr Murray said.

He said funding for roads made up about 22 per cent of the council’s overall budget and that it was looking to “break the back” of the backlog.

“We’re the largest road authority in the state, so any changes, positive or negative, have a profound impact,” Cr Murray said.

The federal government looks set to reinstate annual indexation on Financial Assistance Grant (FAG) funding from 2017/18, a move which has also been welcomed by local councils.

“The financial assistance grants lock up on indexation for three years and took almost $1 million out of the budget,” Cr Murray said.

“There isn’t room to absorb those sort of losses.”

Cr Bolton said the freeze on FAG indexation had also cost his council about $1 million.

“Council needs to raise that money, so it has a cumulative effect,” he said on the loss.

“There is an expected level of service.”

Moree Plains mayor Katrina Humphries agreed, saying the indexation freeze had “hurt” all councils and its restoration was welcome.

She also praised the increase in the Roads to Recovery funding, and believed overall the Budget ticked many boxes.