Council has copped two days flak from most (not all) quarters over its seeming reluctance to throw its full support behind the Rotary Young Driver Awareness program to be held at the Mount Panorama pit complex in May.

For more than a decade, the Rotary Young Driver Awareness (RYDA) program has put Year 11 students in front of police officers, crash survivors and professional driving instructors right at the stage of life when they are preparing to get behind the wheel themselves.

For many of the participants, it is the only access to professional driving instructors they will receive and organisers work hard to keep the cost of taking part to a minimum.

But until late yesterday it look like a RYDA organisers would again be forced to go cap in hand to Bathurst Regional Council on Wednesday to seek a full fee waiver for use of the Mount Panorama pit complex in May.

Council had pledged to waive just $4333 of the usual $6500 fee, leaving Rotary to find the other $2167.

While some in the community believed council had been generous enough, most respondents to an online Western Advocate poll – not to mention most of those who chose to comment on the story – believed otherwise.

Many questioned council’s priorities, recalling the $40,000 spent on last year’s logo debacle and also the heavy price of some court battles in recent years.

And the outcry was certainly having an impact. When the Western Advocate started calling each councillor on Tuesday to gauge where they stood, it appeared a majority were ready to grant the full fee waiver to neutralise the issue.

But now they won’t have to.

A meeting on Tuesday afternoon Skillest CEO Craig Randazzo, RYDA co-ordinator Graham Bright and Bathurst councillor Jess Jennings ended with Skillset agreeing to pay half the hire fees – $3250 a year – for the next three years.

The deal is a great result for Rotary and also the hundreds of kids who will complete the RYDA course.

It is also a win for council, justifying its stubborn stance on the hire fees and even recouping more than initially planned.

Council might still be accused of penny-pinching, but the bluff has paid off. Any gambler would be proud.