Call for road access fee

A Bruce Rock farmer has called for Co-operative Bulk Handling to pay an access fee to local Shires in return for the use of roads in the Grain Freight Network.

Stephen Strange, who is also the president of the Shire of Bruce Rock, believes a fee equivalent to the rate currently paid to Brookfield to access the rail lines was the first step in assisting local shires to maintain local roads.

He said roads in the Grain Freight Network were already showing signs of serious deterioration, even though the out loading program in his Shire had only just begun.

He said rural Shires did not have the financial capacity to pick up the bill for road works that would be needed to upkeep rural roads currently under pressure by the extra trucks involved in CBH's out loading program.

He estimated rates would need to be increased by at least 5 per cent to cover road maintenance costs.

"You can pull 2000 tonnes of grain in one train from Bruce Rock to Merredin, but, in comparison, that equates to 80 truck movements on a road, creating massive amounts of damage and making the roads unsafe for other users," he said.

Mr Strange's call comes as further evidence of the Wheatbelt's crumbling road system emerges, with Shires including Quairading, Cunderdin and Narembeen also crying out for more road funding to fix local roads impacted by the heavy haulage out loading program.

But CBH has thrown the blame back to the State Government, saying the impact of Brookfield Rail closing the Tier 3 lines had shifted costs not only to growers, but also onto local government and their communities.

CBH general manager operations Dave Capper said CBH had repeatedly offered to sub lease and run all the Tier 3 lines, and was using all avenues available through the Rail Access Code to gain access to the majority of Tier 3 Lines.

"These questions need to be addressed by the Department of Transport and PTA rather than CBH," he said.

He said grain freight rates would increase if Shires charged an access fee to use local roads.

"CBH has not factored in the responsibility for road maintenance or Shires charging an access fee into current grower freight rates. If this system was to be implemented by Shires, grower freight rates would have to be increased to cover these costs," Mr Capper said.

He said grain freight rates had already been increased to incorporate a road leg into the freight journey to port.

But Mr Strange cited the Cunderdin Shire road closure last week as an example that roads on the Grain Freight Network needed urgent attention.

He said the concept of the access fee for the use of local roads was not a new idea, and the precedent had already been set in the Shire of Perenjori.

According to Perenjori Shire president Chris King, the Shire negotiated a maintenance fee with a mining company for the upkeep of local roads used in heavy haulage operations.

Mr Strange said the CBH receival sites in the Bruce Rock district had the capacity to take 240,000 tonnes, with most of the grain yet to be hauled across country to the standard gauge rail line.

"We really haven't seen the bulk of the impact of this carting program yet," he said.

But Mr Strange said using State-owned roads, maintained by Main Roads WA, wasn't the answer either.

He said numerous parts of the York-Merredin road, which is owned and maintained by Main Roads WA, were unsafe and needed urgent repair.

"Strip widening isn't the answer. I haven't seen any strip widening on Wheatbelt roads that lasts any length of time - it's a quick fix that doesn't work," he said.

By comparison, he said works completed by the Shire on parts of that same road 14 years ago were still holding up well despite the heavy haulage traffic.