CAMPAIGNERS Kent and Dianne McNab are delighted with the response from the community as decision time for the intersection of Mitre, Suttor and Lambert streets draws near.
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Bathurst Regional Council has put plans for the intersection, which include realignment and constructing a roundabout, on public display for a 28-day period.
A letter with the plans attached was sent to 500 residents in the immediate vicinity of the intersection.
As is council’s usual procedure, residents are invited to make submissions on the plans during the 28 days they are on display.
Mr and Mrs McNab have been leading the campaign for a roundabout at the intersection since the end of 2016.
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When the plans went on display, they made sure to get back out in the community to encourage people to make submissions.
“We’ve been talking to a few people who got a letter from council,” Mr McNab said. “It was a bit ambiguous, so we had a lot of people ring up to ask what to do.”
In order to simplify the process, Mrs McNab developed a template that would guide people on how to make a submission.
Mr McNab said it isn’t particularly difficult once the process is explained.
“You just need to put your name and address on a piece of paper and some comments about what you think of the plans,” he said.
“The plans are available at Bathurst Regional Council.”
People can also visit the YourSay Bathurst website to give feedback on the plans.
So far, the McNabs have been handed around 40 submissions, which they will submit on residents’ behalf.
They are also in the middle of penning their own submission, which they’ll take to council in the coming days.
“It’s not hard to do and anyone who sees us around town, we’ve got submission templates in our bags,” Mr McNab said.
The saga of the intersection began more than 20 years ago.
The previous Bathurst City Council had commissioned a $60,000 traffic study in 1997 that recommended major changes at the intersection and over the years several reports have come back to council with the recommendation of a roundabout.
Mr and Mrs McNab decided they couldn’t keep quiet any long on November 25, 2016, after a car ploughed into the fence of The Assumption School, barely 15 minutes after young children had arrived for kindergarten orientation.
They feared that if the accident had occurred earlier that a child could have been injured or killed.
With submissions pouring in, the couple feels the right decision will finally be made.
“After 21 years of dithering, we are the furthest we have ever been,” Mr McNab said.