Published by The Border Watch by Charlotte Varcoe

WATTLE Range Council Mayor Des Noll has highlighted the state of South East roads once again.

Mr Noll put a motion to elected members during this month's Wattle Range Council meeting requesting support to reinstate the Highways Department Depots back into local communities.

The mayor requested councillors to advocate to Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Tom Koutsantonis for the reinstatement of the depots after the previous Liberal Government contracted out the maintenance of the state's road network.

Within his motion, Mr Noll stated as a result of the decision, the roads in the South East had "never been in such an awful condition".

"Currently the South Australia road network is in arrears of $2 billion dollars plus for road maintenance and re-builds," Mr Noll's motion stated.

"Roads like Mile Hill Road, Kangaroo Flat Road, Mount McIntyre Road, Southern Ports Highway and many others will never be repaired or rebuilt under the current system."

The motion claimed the state government's current system was not working for regional South Australia with many dollars being spent on "band-aid maintenance solutions" and "shortterm capital renewal fixes".

"With all the advocacy and roadside tour inspections with politicians, councils and communities around the state have seen very little improvement," the motion stated.

"Pothole damage to road user vehicles continues to be an ongoing issue even on newly constructed sections of state roads.

"I believe the time has come for the state government to change direction and reinstate back into local communities South Australia Highways Department Work Depots."

The motion said a local workforce running the depots would know the road maintenance requirements and road construction issues while also being able to respond in a timely manner.

"This shift would empower local companies leveraging local knowledge to benefit the community," it said.

"Economically it will provide greater employment opportunities for local people and build partnerships with local governments and private earth moving contractors within its respective communities."

Member for MacKillop Nick McBride told SA Today he supported the motion and had been in discussions about the option with Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell.

"The biggest issue here is the contract that is being rolled out and provided by Fulton Hogan," Mr McBride said.

"It is not working for them, it is not working for motorists and our roads are not being repaired frequently enough or often enough and are falling apart."

He said there were two alternatives people were discussing about the future of road maintenance with one being the regional depots and another being the local government also participating in the works.

"That would be based on them being supported by the state government to obviously be fully compensated for the cost of running such a service but they may be a really good authority to help repair the roads in and around the local areas should council have the capacity," Mr McBride said.

"I have raised this with councils and spoken to them, they were curious to what that might look like but they were not negative about it, they needed to know more detail so they were curious to investigate that feasibility further if the minister should desire to give that consideration."

The suggestion comes weeks following the state government announcing it would contribute $400,000 to Wattle Range Council for it to complete the Southend turnoff.

Council provided the state government with an alternative plan for the turnoff, moving the cost from the expected $1.6m to $400,000.

Mr Bell also encouraged the regional depot to be reinstated, stating local councils needed to get on board and show a united front.

"It is no secret the roads are in the worst state I have ever seen in my 50 years down here," Mr Bell said.

"In terms of bringing a highways department back here, it is about building regional capacity and if we have a highways department re-established here, the jobs are here and the care and work that is undertaken is done to a higher standard."

He said there would also be quicker response times and opportunities for apprentices to move into the workforce.

"For me it is not just the quality of the roads, it is the workforce and pathways for our students who may decide to go into civil construction because they see it everyday and know people who are working on these things," Mr Bell said.

"I am really pleased Wattle Range reached out to me and talked to me about it and it is something I would like all our councils to do."

Mr Bell said he would also love to have the Opposition Liberal Party put this forward as an election issue, stating it would work right across the regions.

"There is no secret that most regions have declined over the past 30 years and that is a direct result of these services being taken away, privatised and then you get Adelaide-based companies who come down, do the work, leave and when it falls apart it is hard to get them back to fix it," he said.

"This is a region building initiative." A state government spokesperson said it announced a full review of the road maintenance contract privatisation which happened under the previous government.

"It is clear that this short-sighted cash grab has not led to service improvements and in some cases such as the South East it has failed dramatically," the spokesperson said.

"That review is still underway but we will have more to say about the outcomes in due course."