27 Sep 2017 Euroa Gazette, Euroa VIC (General News) THERE have been plenty of claims made in relation to country roads in recent news articles. The facts are VicRoads maintenance budget was $157 million in the last year of the previous Liberal/National Government this year Labor has allocated $343.2 million to maintenance. The Nationals are deliberately misleading on a proposal to reduce speed limits. It was Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Doug Fryer concerned about deaths on our roads due to speed proposing the idea of reduced speed limits on country dirt roads. Turning this into a political tit for tat is disrespectful to those who have lost loved ones on our roads. Labor knows roads are the lifeblood of country communities thats why were s investing more than ever before to make our country roads safer. Since coming to office, the Andrews Labor Government has doubled spending on road maintenance. Over the next 12 months VicRoads will be doing more pavement work than it has done in decades in this financial year alone VicRoads k will fix more than 1400 km of roads. e And were not just filling pot holes, were rebuilding entire sections of some of our most critical links. Were rolling out more than 1700 km of wire rope barriers, upgrading road shoulders and widening centre lines on the states most dangerous country roads. t I know there is much to be done on country roads and our government is focused on get ting on with the job. Jaclyn Symes (MLC, Northern Victoria) EDITORS NOTE: Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Doug Fryer raised the pros pect of reducing the speed limit to 70kmh on unsealed country roads. Licensed by Copyright Agency. You may only copy or communicate this work with a licence.