And that appears to be the case with the long-awaited reported by Integrated Design Group into options for Centennial Park, prepared for Bathurst Regional Council and to be tabled at next week’s meeting.

Following a long consultation process, the report has delivered six options for the park ranging from doing virtually nothing to a massive, multi-million dollar overdevelopment of the site.

It will now be up to councillors to decide which option to pursue and you would not have to be the keenest council watcher to know instinctively that it will be neither the top-of-the-range or cheap-as-chips plan.

Instead, councillors will almost certainly vote to spend between $3 million and $4 million to upgrade recreation facilities at the park and to beautify the landscaping while basically leaving it as what it is today: a green space in the middle of a densely populated area of the city.

And that’s exactly how it should be. As this newspaper has previously stated, Centennial Park does not need new buildings to make it attractive, it just needs a little love.

Friends of Centennial Park liken its current state to how Peace Park looked 30 years ago before being redeveloped as a bicentenary project.

The introduction of some public art and the creation of a riverside walk have made Peace Park a jewel in the CBD’s crown, now well loved and well used.

Victoria Park is another useful comparison. Just a decade ago Victoria Park sat unloved and largely unused opposite Bathurst Base Hospital before Bathurst Regional Council started its ambitious project to develop an adventure playground.

It, too, has been transformed and the same can happen at Centennial Park.

We don’t need another adventure playground but a growing city like Bathurst can never have too many green areas for families and communities to enjoy.

That was the feedback – loud and clear – from most participants during the consultation process and the consultants who prepared the report, not to mention the councillors who will ultimately make the decision, would have been playing with fire to recommend any different.

The good news is, we can now move forward at Centennial Park. It has been a long process to date, but if we get the right result we will all be celebrating.