By Angela Dorizas

Councils in South Australia can expect to see additional funding for local roads under a Coalition Government, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said.

LGA president, Mayor Felicity-ann Lewis said the commitment from Shadow Minister for Trade, Transport and Local Government, Warren Truss, to address the local roads funding shortfall was welcomed by SA councils.

“It has long been recognised that the historical funding anomaly, which penalises South Australian local roads, needed to be addressed,” Cr Lewis said in a statement.

She said the current $15.48 million annual supplementary allocation was due to expire in June 2011, with no further funding commitments in the Government’s current forward estimates.

“Since 2003, successive governments have applied bandaid funding to this unfair funding formula for the allocation of the local roads component of the financial assistance grants,” Cr Lewis said.

“We are delighted that the Coalition has announced that it will provide additional funding for South Australia until at least 2014.”

Cr Lewis said local councils in SA were responsible for more than 72,000 kilometres of local roads and without further funding they would be under considerable pressure to maintain them.

“We called on the major political parties, ahead of this weekend’s Election, to commit to extending the funding for SA local roads,” she added.

“I would now call on the Gillard Government to match or better the Coalition’s commitment.”