Tamworth Regional Council: Road reclassification an opportunity to hand roads in disrepair back to the state government, like Ogunbil, Port Stephens Cutting and Rangari Road

The notorious Port Stephens Cutting at Ogunbil Road is at the top of the council's priority list to palm off, closely followed by Rangari, Werris Creek, Nundle and Lindsays Gap roads.

The state government has agreed to take back 15,000 kilometres of regional roads to help local councils manage the network.

It was excellent news for the ratepayers, Tamworth Regional Council councillor Mark Rodda said.

"For me Ogunbil Road would almost be the number one priority considering Port Stephens Cutting and how dangerous that section can be at times," he said.

"It is a great opportunity to surrender some roads that should be state-managed and the ones they do take control of we would hope to see some state funds expended on those roads.

"Obviously the problem we face as a council is that we would never probably have the ratepayer funds to be able to afford to upgrade roads like Ogunbil, Lindsays Gap or Rangari."

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With just 15,000km the state is willing to take back and 128 local councils with roads to give away, the competition could be tough.

As a result, councillor Glenn Inglis suggested the council prioritise the roads it wants to transfer by number; in case the state government only takes back one.

It has already identified four high priority roads and one low priority road with Lindsays Gap.

When a local road is reclassified as a regional road it becomes eligible for state government funding.

From 2019 to 2020, Tamworth council spent $42 million on roads and related infrastructure.