Related stories
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
THE contentious Bathurst Gasworks site is in the spotlight again after an incident over the weekend saw the new fence destroyed in one area.
Councillor Bobby Bourke came across the damage on Saturday morning while driving along Russell Street.
“I went past on Saturday morning and there was around about six panels destroyed,” he said.
“I rang the police station and the first officer I spoke to didn’t know what I was talking about. They hadn’t heard anything.
“It has done a lot of damage.”
At this stage, the damage appears to have been the result of a car leaving the road and ploughing through the fence.
“You can see where a car has gone through,” Cr Bourke said.
The fence was installed only a few months ago by Jemena, which leases the site from the NSW Government, in response to concerns raised about people accessing the dangerous gasworks building.
It cost $160,000 to install the 2.4 metre-high galvanised steel fence around the perimeter of the lower Russell Street site.
Prior to the installation of the security fence, a wire fence was the only thing stopping people wrongfully entering the site.
This fence had several weaknesses in it, which people were able to use to access Bathurst Gasworks.
Cr Bourke said the damaged panels had to be replaced quickly to prevent people having easy access to the site again.
“It is an easy way to get in there. I won’t be pushing [Jemena] straight away, but they’ve got to be aware of the damage and fix it,” he said.
A spokesperson for Jemena said a temporary fence had been erected on Monday to prevent people accessing the site until a new fence could be installed.
“We will have to scope out the cost of a formal repair and that will probably take a few weeks before it can happen,” the spokesperson said.
Cr Bourke said the incident was “disappointing” considering how long it had taken to get a proper fence around the site.
“It is very disappointing because they went to tall the troubling of fencing it,” he said.
The damage has come as another blow to Jemena, which earlier this year lodged an application to hand the site back to Crown Lands.
In its application, Jemena proposed demolition works at site and offered to pay out the remainder of its 20-year lease so the site could be handed back and put to an alternative use.
Crown Lands met to discuss the proposal in late January, but a response has still not been received by Jemena.
The Jemena spokesperson said the energy provider was still hoping to hand the site back.
“We are still talking to Crown Lands at this stage and that hasn’t progressed any further,” they said.
“Our position hasn’t changed at this point; we are not using the land and we don’t have a use for it.”