A Glenelg Shire Councillor has demanded assurances the full budget for this year’s road repairs will be spent, after about $500,000 of the previous budget’s road funding was left unused. 

What’s going on: Councillor Michael Carr asked Glenelg council staff at Tuesday’s council meeting to explain why unused money allocated for roads was not spent in the 2025-26 financial year.

“We can’t afford not to have spent the money last year. And I want to see that into this year. And then I want some [surety] that we've got plans in place to spend every dollar that we've got allocated within our budget on the roads,” Carr told the meeting.

What they said: Glenelg Shire spent $5 million in 2025-26 on road renewal projects.

Council Infrastructure director Aaron Moyne said works to fix roads, bridges and kerbs had started last year but weren’t finished by the end of June. The projects were then moved into the roads program for 2026-27.

Slow on the uptake? Looking at the quarterly finance report for this financial year, which covers July to September, Carr pointed out council had only spent $172,000 of its $4.9 million road renewal budget so far.

“So in the financial statement to the end of September, we wouldn’t see a lot,” she said.

Carr replied it’s not about the timing, but about “how we’re going to spend it, because our roads need it. That’s the feedback we get from the community”.

Moving forward: Moyne assured Carr there were “plenty” of projects underway since the end of the September report. 

“We’ve had contracts awarded [at the meeting], the re-sheeting program’s underway at the moment, there’s roads being re-sheeted in the north of the shire at the moment,” he said.

“Other contracts at a lower level for various road and infrastructure renewal are also going through the process at the moment.”