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The decision to withdraw government funding for a rail trail project in northern New South Wales has been described as "heartless" by local community leaders.
The New England Rail Trail project could be derailed after the state and federal governments withdrew their funding for the project.
More than $14 million was granted to the Armidale and Glen Innes Severn councils as part of a program designed to rejuvenate communities affected by bushfires.
The Glen Innes Railway Station is a feature of the proposed New England Rail Trail. (Supplied: Glen Innes Severn Council)
Both were notified on Friday that their funding had been withdrawn with the respective government departments citing a lack of progress.
Glen Innes Severn Mayor Margot Davis and her Armidale counterpart Sam Coupland have called for answers, describing the decision as heartbreaking for their communities.
"This is a promise that's been broken to our community and we're obviously really upset about it," Cr Davis said.
"We feel that the assessment and review process — which didn't include consultation with us — is a really heartless decision."
Sam Coupland says the funding withdrawal is devastating for his community. (Supplied)
Cr Coupland shared similar sentiments.
"Incredible disappointment, I feel gutted," he said.
"Our region's been taken advantage of by the state and federal government.
"They're asking us to do a lot of heavy lifting, particularly in their transition to renewable energy, and they're giving us nothing."
'No viable progress'
In 2021 Glen Innes Severn was allocated $8.7 million in joint bushfire relief funding from the state and federal governments.
The following year the neighbouring Armidale Regional Council received more than $5.41 million under the Black Summer Bushfire Recovery program.
The councils agreed to put the money towards parts of the New England Rail Trail, a planned 210 kilometre cycling path between Armidale and Wallangarra.
In a statement to the ABC, a spokesperson for the Minister for Regional NSW said an extensive review found no viable progress had been made on the rail trail.
They said the councils could not complete the project by June 30, 2025 as required, and therefore the offer of funding had been revoked.
Plans included Ben Lomond Railway Station in the rail trail route. (Supplied: Armidale Regional Council)
Cr Davis said it was not the councils' fault they could not meet the deadline.
"It took 12 months for council to get access to the corridor from the state government's Transport Asset Holding Entity," she said.
"This pushed the timeline to delivery to a point where council, in reality, could not deliver the project by June 30 [2025]."
State MP weighs in
The member for the Northern Tablelands, Brendan Moylan, has also called for the decision to be reversed.
He said the funding should remain in the New England North West region.
"It's just a heartless, heartless decision in my opinion to take money out of regional NSW that was allocated in order to help communities recover from bushfires," he said.
"It's the most heartless decision certainly that I've seen in my short time as the local state member."
The ABC understands New England MP Barnaby Joyce will be taking the issue to the floor of federal parliament today.