The Rural City of Wangaratta (RCoW) is inviting community submissions on the draft Road Management Plan (RMP) 2025-29 from now until 22 August.

At last week's council meeting a report was presented to councillors seeking endorsement to proceed with placing the draft plan on public exhibition in accordance with the requirements of the Road Management Act 2004 and Council’s Community Engagement Policy.

The RMP sets the standard for how council will perform its inspection, maintenance and repair responsibilities for rural and urban roads covering sealed and unsealed road surfaces, road pavement, footpaths, kerb and channel, drainage pits, bridges, regulatory, hazard and warning signage, guard rail and vegetation.

The existing plan was adopted in 2021 and serves to establish a system for local road management functions to set performance standards based on operational objectives and available resources.

Cr Tania Maxwell said "we all know that roads is predominantly one of our priorities".

"I look forward to this draft management plan going out for consultation and I would expect that there will be a lot of submissions and feedback," she said.

"Let's hope that we can continue to improve the roads within our LGA area over the coming years."

Cr David Fuller said given the conjecture of this subject matter, he implores all to get onto connect.wangaratta.vic.gov.au/ and contribute to the conversation.

Mayor Irene Grant said the state of the roads was something the community will measure local government very sternly on.

"The condition of roads is uppermost in everyone's mind," she said.

"This draft road management plan sets out how we're going to manage this into the future and what the roads will look like, which roads fit into which category, which roads we are responsible for, and which roads we're not.

"I would very much invite the community to put forward their submissions and and be part of the conversation on this particular this plan.

"It's one of council's more important plans and something that I think will attract a lot of community interest."

During this 28-day period short videos will be released on social media to provide explanation of how the road management plan works, explaining aspects such as road defects and intervention levels to provide context on how the road management plan works in practice.

Two drop-in sessions will also be held in Wangaratta and the King Valley, together with opportunity to book a time to talk with council officers on the topic.