Willoughby City Council is a signatory to a new memorandum of understanding with Sydney Water which aims to improve the time, cost and quality aspects of road reserve restoration work.

Reactive and planned repairs and upgrades on Sydney Water’s underground water and sewerage infrastructure can often affect public roads and footpaths, causing disruptions and hazards for residents. Under the new memorandum of understanding, the time taken to repair roads and footpaths after necessary works will be drastically reduced, even halved, and the quality of the repairs will need to meet strict standards, reducing future maintenance and repair requirements.

Willoughby is one of 42 councils that have signed the landmark agreement.

“I hope that by signing this agreement, the frustrations and disruptions that accompany road and footpath repairs will be minimised. We should see road reserve restorations completed within 90 days of Sydney Water’s works being completed which, in many cases, will be a vast improvement for the amenity of our residents,” said Willoughby Mayor, Gail Giles-Gidney.

“The memorandum of understanding commits Willoughby Council and Sydney Water to agreed timeframes, quality specifications and ongoing management practices for road and footpath restoration,” said Mayor Gail.

The agreement should also improve accountability as the roles and responsibilities of councils and Sydney Water have been more clearly outlined. A software system is also being developed to enable the electronic tracking of repair works.