With a road network that spans over 1700km, it was no surprise to Greater Taree City that its local government area was deemed unfit.

All NSW councils were required to lodge a proposal with the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) by June 30, to be reviewed against their scale and capacity benchmarks, and a range of financial criteria.

As a result 60 per cent of all councils are now deemed "not fit".

For Greater Taree City Council and other regional councils with significant infrastructure assets to manage, this is in line with the review by the NSW Treasury Corp two years ago and subsequent commentary by various academics.

While Greater Taree City Council is considered to have sufficient scale and capacity, meaning plenty of geographic area and an appropriately manageable population, the burden that is its deteriorating road network led to poor performance in the financial measures.

In simple terms, low population density means rating income is not sufficient to fund essential transport infrastructure, particularly poignant given the population is spread across a large area.

As a result renewal of the 1725km road network is unable to keep pace with the level of its deterioration.

Ron Posselt, general manager for Greater Taree City Council said, "The Fit for the Future process asks councils to cash fund depreciation, fully fund road, bridge and stormwater maintenance and operate with more than 60 per cent of own source revenue. This approach requires ratepayers to fund their local infrastructure".

Next month's consultation with the Greater Taree community comes off the back of IPART's findings, with a special rate variation (SRV) being central to discussions for delivering safer roads for our community.

"Although we were given the option to lodge a submission that involved merging with Gloucester Shire Council, doing so would increase our area size by 44 per cent, and our length of roads by 40 per cent. In contrast, our population and, as a by-product our rates income, would increase by only 10 per cent", added Mr Posselt.

"Even IPART has since found no evidence of a better alternative for us than the stand-alone option".

What it means is that council's ability to fund the region's failing road network falls directly back into the hands of its ratepayers.

And the longer it is before intervention takes place, the further the road network deteriorates.