The stormwater drainage channel at the site is doubling in width – from 15 to 30 metres – as part of a multi-million dollar development of the Paddy’s Hotel land that will include a new daycare centre. 

Environmentalist John Fry says the developer should not be required to widen the channel as part of the work.

“It [the work] has involved removing native habitat planted 10 years ago by overseas and community volunteers,” he said. “The existing channel is 15m wide and runs into Raglan Creek, which is also 15m wide.”

If the rationale was that there was increased water run-off because of the nearby housing developments, this should have been addressed through conditions on those houses requiring water-sensitive urban design, Mr Fry said.

”Council knew about these ideas decades ago,” he said.

He also said work on the Macquarie floodplain around the city seemed ad hoc and did not appear “to be part of any floodplain management plan”, though council has disputed this.

Council’s acting director of engineering services Darren Sturgiss said the works at the Paddy’s Hotel site had faced careful scrutiny.

”The development application proposes the subdivision of land around the former St Pat’s Club and part of those works included widening the existing drainage channel to the north of the club,” he said.

“As the project involves works on a designated water course it also needed approval from the NSW Office of Water.”

He said the channel needed to be widened as it did not cater for the full one per cent average exceedance probability – or 1 in 100 year - flow rate as “required by the NSW Floodplain Development Manual and Australian Rainfall and Runoff, which are the relevant stormwater design standards”.

“While Raglan Creek is less than this width, this creek also forms part of the Macquarie River floodplain. Overflowing of Raglan Creek is also taken into consideration with respect to the general development consent process,” he said.

“Generally, overflowing of Raglan Creek is not a concern, and there are identified environmental reasons for not increasing the stormwater capacity of Raglan Creek. 

“There were no issues raised with the removal of vegetation of the stormwater channel and this work has been identified by council to ensure flood protection of residences on Leo Grant Drive.”

Mr Sturgiss said Bathurst does have a Floodplain Management Plan, as adopted by council in 1995, “which deals with construction of levees, the voluntary acquisition scheme and development controls on the floodplain”. 

“The development control on floodplains within Bathurst requires that a flood impact assessment is carried out and should a significant impact be determined, the recommendation is that development consent should be refused,” he said.

“In this particular instance, council carried out the flood impact assessment and identified the maximum site envelope that the development could occupy without negative impact on the behaviour of the floodplain.

“Council placed the development application on public exhibition for a period of 28 days and notified adjoining landowners. 

“No public submissions were received in relation to the project.”