16 March 2023
The FIX THE BROWN community advocacy campaign has welcomed the support of the Bega
Valley Business Forum - the unified voice for the six Chambers of Commerce throughout the Bega Valley.
The Bega Valley Business Forum Letter of Support to FIX THE BROWN says that in it’s current sub-standard and traffic-restricted condition, the Brown Mountain road is regarded by local business as unsafe, unstable, unreliable and unsustainable in supporting the growth and maintenance of business activity in the Bega Valley. The road is subject to frequent unpredictable rock and tree falls, landslides and landslips and delays from virtually constant roadworks.
This negatively impacts freight, transport and fuel costs, business productivity, agriculture, forestry and tourism and the local cost of living due to the ban on B-double truck transport on Brown Mountain, combined with the current restricted single-lane access and traffic delays. These negative impacts expand to involve health and emergency transport to Canberra from the Bega Valley and natural disaster relief and resilience, as demonstrated during the 2020 Black summer bushfires and other flood events.
This stretch of the Snowy Mountains Highway has been subject to single-lane, red light access for the past 12 months and there is no indication from Transport NSW as to when two-lane access will be restored. Furthermore, future publicly available transport plans for southeast NSW include no definite commitment as to when meaningful safety and reliability improvements are planned. The only reference to the Brown Mountain is for “investigations” (not actual work) in a timeframe of 5 - 10 years.
The FIX THE BROWN campaign co-ordinator, Jon Gaul of Tura Beach said the best way for community members to build on this strong backing from the business forum was to sign and share the online FIX THE BROWN petition at fixthebrown.com
Further information
Jon Gaul, co-ordinator
FIX THE BROWN campaign
fix@fixthebrown.com
jongaul35@gmail.com
Ph. 0414603133
Sign our petition to Parliament [external website].