When visiting Port Macquarie Base Hospital or doing business in the Lake Road industrial area, drivers using the Oxley Highway entrance can bank on being stuck in the daily traffic jam around Wrights Road and Sherwood Road.

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It’s either that or travelling via Lake Cathie and facing roadworks delays.

But while the Ocean Drive duplication at least has a projected end date of later this year, there’s no sign of the promised $5m to start planning the upgrade of the Wrights Road intersection.

That section of road is owned and managed by the NSW Government through Transport for NSW (TfNSW).

The Coalition secured joint funding for improvements while in power, but Federal Labor pulled the money in 2023 in a move the Member for Port Macquarie Leslie Williams called “nothing short of irresponsible and negligent.”

In the past week, the Federal Member for Cowper Pat Conaghan, the State Member for Oxley Michael Kemp and Port Macquarie-Hastings Mayor Adam Roberts, have upped the ante to get the money back.

Mr Conaghan has launched a bid for funding under the government’s Black Spot Program and is urging members of the public to go to his website and sign the “Wrights Road Petition.”

“I need your help to get this funding back,” he said.

“The more nominations we have, the stronger our proposal.

“So far we have received hundreds (potentially even in the thousands) but we still need more.”

Meanwhile, Mr Kemp took his appeal to the floor of State Parliament last Thursday and was thrown out for interrupting the Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Jenny Aitchison.

“Is the Minister going to fix Wrights Road? The Federal Labor Government took the money away. Are you going to fix Wrights Road?” he asked.

As he was ejected from the Chamber, Ms Aitchison, who has seen the congestion first-hand at the invitation of Mrs Williams, shrugged her shoulders and blamed “the fighting that goes on between the Nationals and the Liberals in the seat of Port Macquarie”.

“With a by-election coming up, there will be a little bit of noise on the Opposition side – members are probably fighting each other, rather than us,” she said, referring to the Coalition partners each fielding a candidate in the 15 March poll.

Mr Aitchison listed the funds recently allocated to works in the electorate, including the half a million dollars for safety upgrades at Houston Mitchell Drive and the $60m for the Ocean Drive duplication.

Mayor Adam Roberts has now flagged that he will go to Ms Aitchison’s boss, the Premier Chris Minns, and invite him to visit Port Macquarie “to view first-hand the region’s greatest traffic bottleneck”.

“Premier Minns is ultimately responsible for the current situation at Wrights Road and Lake Road and it is therefore reasonable for me to request a face-to-face meeting on-site, particularly given that there appears to be no appetite to add urgency to addressing this well-known issue.

“I hope… that we can discuss and progress immediate improvements while laying down a timeline for longer-term solutions to improve the traffic flow and remedy the congestion in this area.”

By Sue STEPHENSON