The more significant the site, the more important it is that the right development is selected for it, and that can mean several applications to council before everybody is satisfied.

The newest lot on the market is the former Clancy Motors caryard site on Howick Street that has been left vacant following the motor dealership’s move to Sydney Road at Kelso.

Owner Bruce Bolam says he has already spoken to a few interested parties about possible future uses for the site and it’s believed Bathurst Regional Council is one potential buyer. Not that the ratepayers who would be forking out to pay for the site have been privy to that information so far. 

Over the past year or so council has held several discussions during confidential sessions on an item listed in the business paper only as “purchase of commercial site in Howick Street, Bathurst”.

It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to work out which site is being referred to, but council does itself no credit – and gives the voting public no credit – by locking ratepayers out of those discussions. And so we can only guess what council might have in mind for the Clancy Motors site should it be the eventual buyer.

One option is another shopping centre to cope with a growing population, but it would be several decades before such a development was warranted. A new civic centre would be another option, or maybe even the new arts complex that’s been proposed recently. Again, though, what matters is not that the site is developed but, rather, that it is developed properly.

It’s too big a site for us to get it wrong.