Councillor Monica Morse and her husband, Michael, were furious to discover, after months of hard work on the part of Bathurst Regional Council and themselves, the nature strip in front of their house had been torn to pieces.

Before Christmas, council began replacing underground water pipes and re-laying the footpath on Piper Street between Bentinck and William streets.

The work left the nature strip damaged, but the Morses have been working closely with council to repair the area.

This has included planting grass seeds and installing a watering system.

“My husband has been watering the nature strip religiously,” Cr Morse said. 

“He’s been spending an hour or two a day for the last month [working on it].”

On Tuesday, the day Mr Morse completed the rehabilitation work, the couple discovered tyre tracks through the nature strip that span an area of several square metres.

Muddy tracks have also been left on the footpath.

“It is just completely buggered up,” Cr Morse said.

“We’ve got to start it all over again.”

Neither Cr Morse nor her husband can determine what caused the damage, but they are asking residents be more conscious when using the footpaths around town.

“I think everyone should respect the streetscape and the work residents put into maintaining the nature strips,” she said.