Following criticisms by a Councillor, Hilltops Council has put the decision on upgrading Wickham Lane on hold.
Held in May 2025, the Hilltops Ordinary Council Meeting resolved to allocate $800,000 towards the upgrade of the unsealed section of Wickham Lane.
According to Council, the project would improve road safety, ride quality, and long-term maintenance outcomes for the road.
Designed in three distinct stages (with the original funding allocation intended to deliver Stage One and Two of the project), to seal 1.3km of the 4.7km road, the upgrade has been created for a speed limit of 80km/h.
According to the report, this specific design requires environmental disturbance and land acquisition beyond the current Council-controlled road corridor.
The report states a level of inconsistency in speed limits, with the unsealed section operating at 60km/hand the unsealed section running at 100km/h.
Traffic data that has been collected along the unsealed section indicates an average travel speed of approximately 76km/h.
While undertaking upgrade works, the road cannot (according to the report) retain a 100km/h speed limit upon competition of the works, unless the road is designed and constructed to the correct standard, which is cost prohibitive for the road.
Councillor Tony Flanery was unhappy with the report and said, “I’d actually like to move the deferral because in moving deferral, I speak against the existing motion, as has been quite clearly highlighted, there’s been no consultation with the local community.”
“It currently has variable speed limits from 100 down to 60, where the average travel speed is 76 kilometres. We will be the laughing stock of the community, which we already are. We’re going to spend a million dollars, and then we reduce the speed limit to 60 without any consultation.
“I move that we defer this, and we go out to get some consultation, and if that’s what they want, we can spend it…..I’m sick to death of Transport for New South Wales, who do nothing about William Bradford Bridge. They do absolutely nothing….Yet, they sit here and tell us, we can spend a million dollars, and then they’re not going to come and speak with us. They are a definition of hypocrisy in that group.”
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