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Bypass plan back in discussions
Wednesday July 28, 2010
Discussions about a possibly heavy vehicle bypass around Cobar were revived last week with councillors discussing the issue with state Member for Barwon Kevin Humphries.
Mr Humphries has been involved with bypass discussions in both Moree and Coonabarabran, with significantly different community opinions.
He said the most important thing about planning a town bypass was to have community consensus.
“In Coonabarabran it was quite contentious, because some main street businesses don’t want the bypass.
“It won’t progress until there is community consensus.”
He said Cobar is potentially a good candidate for a bypass for a number of reasons.
“It’s far enough away from other towns so people are going to want to stop anyway.
“As the main street is narrowing the bypass will become a bigger issue,” he said.
He said the bypass could have the potential to bring more business to town.
“Fatigue laws allow for the proposal of a 24 hour truck stop development to be more attractive to develop on a bypass.”
He urged Cobar Shire Council to ensure that not only the route of a bypass was well planned, but the community impacts investigated thoroughly.
“You need a series of meetings for interim planning and a lot of consultation.
“The initial difficult stage is getting the community to back you. If you get consensus usually it’s a winner but if not, you wont go too far. The RTA and most authorities are pretty nervous about bypasses,” Mr Humphries said.
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