Draft South East transport plan 'buries' Brown Mountain safety upgrades in fine print

Fix the Brown campaign coordinator Jon Gaul, from Tura Beach, said the March state election provided the opportunity to "get real action" to upgrade the "unsafe and unreliable" mountain pass linking the Far South Coast with the Monaro.

"If we waste this once-in-four-years election opportunity to lock in public commitments from our political leaders, the Bega Valley and the Sapphire Coast communities could still be stuck with this sub-standard unsafe mountain pass road for another 10 years," Mr Gaul said.

The campaign's warning of up to 10 years delay resulted from its analysis of the Draft South East & Tablelands Regional Transport Plan.

The 70-page plan was put out for public comment just prior to Christmas 2022 by retiring NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes. Public submissions close February 24.

"Detail of any future 'plans' to improve the Brown Mountain road are buried in the fine print at the back of the draft plan - as initiative number 41 of 49 initiatives," Mr Gaul said.

"But in another section, that same so-called number 41 'initiative' is even further watered down to an 'investigation' only, with a timeframe of '5 to 10 years'.

"This draft plan reveals that the planners and city-centric Transport NSW managers in Sydney actually have no credible plan to fix the Brown Mountain," Mr Gaul said.

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Having the stretch of Snowy Mountains Hwy classified as a road of strategic importance (ROSI) would attract federal government funding in addition to the state's, and therefore a greater opportunity for more significant repairs - or indeed a replacement.

But while both the NSW Liberals and the current Labor Member for Bega have verbally committed to raising the prospect of lobbying colleagues at a federal level for ROSI inclusion, commitments to short-term action are lacking.

Mr Gaul said signing the Fix the Brown petition campaign was the best way for the community to show community-wide and non-partisan support to upgrade the unsafe and unreliable Brown Mountain road.

"The vital public election commitment needed right now from the political parties is to fund the $15million independent engineering options study to upgrade the existing Brown Mountain route, or identify the best alternative route up the mountain," Mr Gaul said.

"That's the essential first step."

The petition can be found online at fixthebrown.com.