When Bathurst Regional Council first announced plans to subdivide that area in 2014, the 1.2 hectare green reserve was billed as the jewel in the crown.

Avonlea 9, at that time, was just the latest in a long series of Llanarth subdivisions on council land.

That part of the city barely existed 15 years ago but is now very heavily populated. 

With houses as far as the eye can see, Freeman Park was to be and oasis and the 17 lots immediately surrounding it were sold as premium blocks in the council ballot.

As we begin 2018, however, Freeman Park remains remains a dry, undeveloped vacant block.

The promised views across the parkland have never come to fruition.

Council had put aside $300,000 to develop the park in the current financial year but soon found that amount was grossly inadequate given the size of the land and the work required.

So the next council budget will set aside a total of $660,000 to finally have Freeman Park become what it was imagined to be.

Once it is completed it should be wonderful, but should residents in that part of town really have waited four years for what was promised at the start?

What this story reminds us, then, is that the rush to expand our city should always be tempered by the need for local infrastructure to keep pace as we see the same story is unfolding in areas around Laffing Waters and Eglinton.

We do not want to make the same mistakes on a smaller scale here that we have seen made on a massive scale in Western Sydney.

Where land becomes available for new housing in our region, we must be confident that there will also be shops, schools, roads and even parks to support the new population.

We want to be building communities, not desolate outposts.

Council has made millions in recent years from subdividing land around the city and those profits have been used to improve amenities for all residents.

But just as important should be the infrastructure for the new suburbs we are building.

Developing Freeman Park should have been a priority rather than the afterthought it seems to have become.