Councillor Monica Morse won’t have made any friends among residents living on the oversized blocks to the south-east of Bathurst when she coined the new name for their suburb at Bathurst Regional Council’s monthly meeting on Wednesday night.

It came during discussion of a development application to build a 20 metre x 12 metre shed on a property on Ironstone Avenue for the purpose of housing a semi-trailer.

A number of speakers from the public gallery and at least two councillors – Jacqui Rudge and Bobby Bourke – made reference to the “peaceful rural setting” of the area as arguments against allowing the shed to be built.

In one of the more memorable addresses within the council chambers in recent months, though, Cr Morse made it clear she did not view the area that way at all.

Cr Morse admitted she was not previously familiar with White Rock so she – and a number of other councillors – had made a point of visiting the area before casting their vote on the shed. She was clearly not impressed with what she saw.

“I went and had a look ... and I don’t think I have ever seen so many sheds,” she said.

“I then spoke to a real estate agent and asked why do people buy out there into what I considered was Shedsville … and the real estate agent advised me it was so they could have as big a shed as they could get.

“I was really surprised. It is not a lovely rural setting, it is Shedsville ... Any property out there is surrounded by sheds and this is just one more.”

Of course, it was not only the proposed shed that had upset neighbours but also the idea of having a semi-trailer parked in their residential area that had caused concern.

And there’s no doubt that this was a particularly big shed, proving once again that size really matters.

In the end, though, the new shed was approved and a new name for a suburb of Bathurst was born.

However, it’s hard to imagine the average home prices for the region – more than $900,000 over the past 12 months – could have been achieved under the name Shedsville. And it’s harder still to imagine that Cr Morse will be invited back there any time soon.