Maitland City Council confirmed that the RMS was responsible for maintaining the bridge in High Street, near Maitland Hospital.

Mr Fairweather said the bridge, which allowed one lane of traffic to cross in each direction, was a vital piece of infrastructure for the city.

He said it was important to maintain because it was one of the major entry points to the CBD.

It provided a flood-free route for traffic to access central Maitland during the region’s last major flood in 2007, which cut the New England Highway between Maitland railway station and the Trzecinski Bridge.

“Not only is it an important piece of infrastructure, you may remember the last flooding event in Maitland where the road was cut near Maitland railway station and all highway traffic to Rutherford was diverted over the Long Bridge,” Mr Fairweather said.

“The bridge is one of our main entrances to our city centre, it looks run down and it is in need of sprucing up with painting of the bridge rails, new road surface and the trees trimmed.

“If we can do this work it will lift the image of our city; I always say first impressions are lasting impressions for visitors to our fine city.”

Mr Fairweather called on Maitland MP Robyn Parker to ask the government to make money available to maintain the bridge, which he said needed work done to strengthen it.

“The Long Bridge is also in need of a facelift, long overdue for a paint job, new road surface and maybe trim the trees,” he said. 

“Don’t we have any pride in our city?”