Councils beg for billions as half of Hunter's roads deemed unsafe

The Australian Roads Assessment Program found there were extreme safety concerns for almost 50 per cent of the Hunter Central Coast's 1300km road network.

Just 0.5 per cent of the Hunter Central Coast roads received a five-star safety rating, while 30 per cent of the network got two stars and 17 per cent received the lowest one-star rating.

The North Coast, which includes areas such as Port Stephens and Dungog, had a five-star rating for just 0.1 per cent of its roads, with 43 per cent receiving one- or two-star ratings.

Regional Development Minister Kristy McBain was in Port Stephens on Thursday, advertising the government's move to increase the Roads to Recovery fund from $500 million to $1 billion.

However, no new funding was announced for local roads.

NRMA Hunter spokesperson Peter Khoury said councils needed $2.3 billion to get roads up to a safe standard.

"The numbers are staggering by every measure, so we're really up against it," Mr Khoury said. "It's not the fault of councils, they are responsible for 80 per cent of the road network, but they don't have the revenue stream to maintain it."

Maitland City councillor Ben Mitchell said he thought the minister would be more forthcoming with road funding for regional councils, given she was the former mayor of Bega Valley.

The road funding issue is particularly acute in Maitland, the state's fast growing local government area outside of Sydney for more than a decade.

"It's hard to get money that's been promised by governments, let alone new funding," Cr Mitchell said.

"The concern with any of these projects is the longer they're left, the more expensive they become."

The federal government collects more than $23 billion a year from the fuel excise tax and Mr Khoury said more should be directed to local roads.

"Motorists pay their taxes and they have earned the right to drive on safe roads," Mr Khoury said.

Ms McBain said the federal government had doubled its Roads to Recovery funding to $1 billion in response to the concerns of councils.

"Councils across the Hunter Coast of NSW have all asked for the same thing - more support so that they can better maintain and upgrade their local road networks," the Regional Transport Minister said.

"We've listened and will significantly increase the funding available to them - making it easier for councils to progress priority road projects that their communities are calling out for."

Ms McBain also pointed out the federal government was currently funding more than $1.6m of road works across Port Stephens, Cessnock and Maitland.