Mayors disappointed by Labor Party stance on Great Western Highway tunnel

On Thursday, March 2 NSW Labor leader Chris Minns announced that should Labor form government post the March 25 election, the Coalition's committed funding for the upgrades to the Great Western Highway duplication and tunnel will be scrapped in favour of infrastructure funding for Western Sydney.

Executive Member of Country Mayors Association, Forbes Shire Mayor Phyllis Miller said for 20 years the Central West has fought to open up to the rest of NSW.

"Now we have been dealt a blow like no other," she said.

"The much-needed upgraded Great Western Highway road duplication and tunnel infrastructure would help our residents by saving commute time for their advanced health and education needs, and now if Labor comes to power it will be taken away from the Central West community."

Opposition Leader Chris Minns said NSW Labor was not convinced that the NSW Government had "properly completed its planning" for the 11-kilometre "unfunded tunnel" from Little Hartley to Blackheath.

Bathurst MP and Deputy Premier Paul Toole, said the move "sent a clear message to regional NSW that under Labor the building of legacy infrastructure projects would come to a grinding halt".

Mayor of Cabonne Shire Council, Kevin Beatty was extremely disappointed with the announcement since they had been campaigning for 20 years for a "safe and productive" link between Sydney and the Central West.

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"The last 12 months we have seen many extreme natural disasters - the Central West was virtually cut off from the city by road and rail for an extended period," he said.

"Our tourist, business and residents were all dramatically affected and this caused an enormous economic downturn to our economies."

Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Sam Farraway said the NSW Coalition's "Great Western Highway upgrade will transform travel for the thousands of people who use this road every day".

"Under Labor, it will be scrapped and those thousands of people - and the rest of NSW - will be stuck at a standstill," he said.

Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson has said that Dubbo Regional Council has no official position on the Great Western Highway tunnel or the announcement from the Labor Party.

As per the Local Government's Code of Conduct, the mayor explained he can't be seen to influence an election in any way but has previously shown his support for the tunnel, when in 2014 he wrote a column for the Weekender stating his position on the issue.

"One of my complaints with our modern political environment is that governments tend to call a long-term project one that starts just after an election and comes to fruition just before the next election," he said.

"That means that any project that is longer than three or four years struggles to gain any traction."

Using 2014 data, Cr Dickerson said a straight tunnel crossing with a speed limit of 110 kilometres per hour would result in that distance being covered in a theoretical 38 minutes.

"It would be possible to achieve much closer to the speed limit on a multi-lane motorway," he said.

"Imagine doing a legal Dubbo to Sydney drive in less than four hours, it would open up Bathurst, Orange and Mudgee and practically make Lithgow a suburb of Sydney," he said.

The mayor said at the time the environment would also be a "winner" if the tunnel were to occur.

"Based on current traffic and the reduction in distance by going through the mountains rather than over them, there would be an annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to the tune of 136.8 million kilograms," he said.

"This is ignoring the fact that cars are more efficient sitting at a constant speed rather than the stop-start nature of travelling over the Blue Mountains."

Overall, Cr Dickerson said it was a project that stacked up financially and socially.

"It helps grow regional Australia and takes the pressure off the urban sprawl of Sydney. All we need now is a government with the vision to implement it," he said.

While work on the small Medlow Bath section of the highway duplication and another section between Lithgow and Little Hartley is due to start this month, Federal Government funding was delayed last year for the larger east and west sections of the project.

Meanwhile, the central section - the proposed tunnel from Little Hartley to Blackheath - has money committed to it from the current NSW Government but still needs billions of dollars in Federal Government money for it to become a reality.

Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said earlier this year that there was no federal money available for the proposed tunnel.

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