On Monday night, he said the roadside maintenance throughout the city was getting to “a very disreputable stage” and was sick of the council being blamed for the RMS’s lack of work.

“If you look out there at the present time, it’s in a disgusting mess,” he said.

“It does concern me that the city is looking untidy. It isn’t the role of our council to do this work, and yet many of our rate payers expect it of us – it’s not our fault.”

He said the vegetation management along the M1 Motorway was “alarming” and should have been dealt with before summer for the sake of motorists’ safety.

Highlighting some of the worst sections of the road, Cr Bradbery picked out the Haywards Bay and Yallah Road intersection, Mount Ousley intersection near the University of Wollongong, Appin Road and M1/Princes Highway interchange at Figtree.

“That section where you come into Figtree past the various fast food outlets… all you look at is this section of trees almost drowning now in vines,” he said.

“It’s an appalling state and the litter on the side of the road is unbelievable.”

Cr Bradbery also took aim at litterbugs within the city, saying people “had great disregard for disposing of their litter incorrectly”.

“We have one garbage service per 2.56 residents, that means there are 80,645 domestic wastes services a week in our city and yet people cannot retain their rubbish and put it in the bin when they get home,” he said.

“It never ceases to amaze me the laziness of the tossers that are around.”

Other councillors heartily agreed with the Lord Mayor’s motion, with Janice Kershaw adding that Memorial Drive in the northern suburbs was “an absolute disgrace” and were covered with weeds.

She suggested the council should set up mobile signs to tell residents that the NSW government – rather than Wollongong council – was responsible for the mess.

Councillors agreed to seek urgent action from the RMS Director to highlight infrequent maintenance and ask for better monitoring and efforts to keep the visual amenity of roads in check.

They will also write to various state ministers and local MPs to push for a clean up of state roads and rail corridors.

Asked about maintenance on Illawarra Roads, an RMS spokesman said there was “a program of vegetation maintenance and rubbish removal on freeways and motorways, and prioritises areas which may affect sight distance or cause a safety hazard for motorists”.

“Work schedules vary according to weather conditions and accessibility of sites which impact on safe working conditions for maintenance staff. Delays were recently experienced due to state-wide total fire bans which prohibited mowing and clearance activities.”

He said work was planned in the next fortnight at Masters Road and Oak Flats, depending on the weather.