THERE is no doubting the tenacity of self-styled road safety campaigners Kent and Dianne McNab.
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On Saturday we mark the 12-month anniversary of the crash that started their push to have a roundabout installed at the intersection of Mitre, Suttor and Lambert streets, but the McNabs show no sign that they are running out of energy.
Make no mistake, though – there are plenty inside the council chamber who wish they would.
The McNabs decided 12 months ago they had seen too many crashes and too many near-misses near the intersection to sit idle any longer.
With a school just metres from the intersection and almost 2000 students at schools within walking distance of the intersection, it’s easy to see the potential for tragedy.
Add to that the ever-increasing traffic through the intersection travelling to and from the expanding residential areas of Windradyne, Eglinton and Llanarth and most agree that something must be done there.
But if the question just what should be done, then Bathurst Regional Council does not have to look far for the answer.
The McNabs’ research soon uncovered no fewer than three council engineers’ reports from the past 20 years that looked at ways to improved safety at the intersection.
Each one of the reports recommended a roundabout, yet the project was never funded.
That appeared to have changed in June when council, after seven months of campaigning from the McNabs, council set aside money in the 2017-18 budget to finally build a roundabout.
But if councillors and council staff thought that would be enough for the McNabs, they were wrong. Instead, Kent and Dianne have just kept going and it’s clear that they won’t stop until work on the roundabout is well under way.
As the past 20 years have shown them, words count for nothing when it comes to Bathurst’s worst intersection and it is only through constant, consistent pressure that change is going to come.
So the McNabs keep collecting signatures, keep contacting politicians, keep liaising with local media, keep knocking on doors and keep turning up to monthly council meetings to provide updates on their progress. It has been a faultless campaign that looks certain to be successful, but Kent and Dianne McNab won’t stop until it is.
Congratulations to them both.