At its August meeting, councillors heard that, under current funding levels, shire roads could not be maintained.

If the current funding shortfall is continued for the next 20 years, it is predicted 32 per cent of the road network will have deteriorated below the level ntsawhich is nteaccepted by the community. Some roads could be closed.

Hepburn Shire mayor Janine Booth said there was a growing gap between the amount of money needed to maintain essential services and what was provided through government grants.

However, Zachary Casper, a founding member of Hepburn Shire Concerned Residents and Landowners Association, said council should start by sacking some of its staff.

Mr Casper said the group did not buy the council line that extra revenue was needed, but he said commonsense was.

"This is a bloated bureaucracy that is in charge of our little shire," he said.

"It is what any business would do when faced with a debt of two to three million."

But Cr Booth said juggling community expectations with the actual funding available was an increasing dilemma for many small rural councils.

"If we didn't put money into the repair or maintenance of those roads, a sealed road could revert to gravel," she said.

"On top of what we spend now we need to put an extra $250,000 into our road infrastructure every year and, by 2016, we will have bridged the infrastructure gap.

"That's just the roads."

Cr Booth said the infrastructure funding gap was an issue faced by many small rural councils, a dilemma highlighted recently by the Wheelan report into local government.

Cr Booth said councils would increasingly be forced to share resources just to get by.

"In some areas, further amalgamations are being discussed," she said.

"My council is reluctant to say the only answer is extra funding.

"We think there is some opportunity internally for some cost savings."

However, Mr Casper said if council wanted to free up funds, he could think of a number of ways, including cutting funding for tourism.

"I think the answer is to get a plan to cut the two to three million dollar debt the council has in the next one to two years, to be erased by 2012."