The landholders feel they were not given a chance to be heard when Roads Minister Melinda Pavey inspected the road last week because the National Party deliberately selected its own members to meet with her.

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Both Armidale and Kempsey councils have called for safety improvements to the road connecting the two communities, and everything in between, for years. Now, they have submitted a joint grant program for about $16.35 million.  

Armidale Regional Council Mayor Simon Murray said $11.35 million was needed for the Armidale end of the road, which was continually underfunded since 2007, following a State Government reclassified Armidale’s half of the road as a "local road".

Cr Murray said a lot of work was needed to improve both ends of the road.

"Because there are a lot of spots where there are very sharp corners where you just cannot get long trucks up on it, we're going to dig into the hill a bit to make the corners a lot wider so you can transit around," he said.

"Another  problem is that every time there is a heavy downpour the water just goes straight across the road and there is no real drainage. We need to build the sides of the road up a bit to get a good drainage system occurring.

"Then, down on the bottom, you're following the river along and you've got a vertical drop down into the water. Then in places you've got this vertical rock overhang. It hangs our over the road so high loads, let's say loads of hay for cattle, the truck's got to go right out to the edge of the river so the rock doesn't hit the top of the hay."

There seems to be a lot to complain of on Kempsey Road, and it appears Cr Murray and his team are about to hear more about it on Saturday afternoon.