BATHURST Regional Council is not ready to gamble $500,000 on actions to rid Machattie Park of flying foxes should they return this summer.
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After much debate between councillors at Wednesday night’s ordinary meeting, they voted to continue carrying out ‘level one’ actions within its Flying Fox Camp Management Plan, but consider increased cleaning in the park should the animals return this year.
Level one actions include cleaning park furniture, raking up debris and planting alternative habitat along the Macquarie River.
The method was chosen over one proposed by deputy mayor Bobby Bourke, which was to implement levels one, two and three, the higher two levels being deterrent and dispersal actions.
Combined, it would cost close to $500,000 per year and research shows there is only a five per cent chance of it solving the problem.
Deterrent and dispersal action would also need to cease in the event of birthing, lactating or late-pregnancy females in the camp, which is highly likely.
Cr Bourke said Machattie Park, a heritage-listed park, would be at risk of being destroyed by the flying foxes if council didn’t take more severe action to keep them out.
“I feel that if we just clean up after them and say ‘Well, welcome back’, it’s not good enough,” he said.
“We as a council have got to show some action and deter the bats.
“We don’t know if they are going to be here in the first place, but if they do come we’ve got to have a plan to do something. Other councils have done nothing and they’ve destroyed their parks.”
Cr Jacqui Rudge said it was difficult to pick the right course of action when council had to weigh up the potential damage to the park against the cost, that would reach millions if it had to be repeated year after year.
“Honestly, we are in a dilemma, we are faced with this, and I really find it very hard to know what to do because there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do that is going to work, other than just go and clean up after the bats,” she said.
It was Monica Morse who put forward the motion to go to level one actions, as recommended in a report by council’s director of Engineering Services, and also look into funding options for an increased cleaning regime.
She said the risk of spending $500,000 every year on actions that were unlikely to work was too great, especially when it was unknown whether the bats would return this summer.
“Let’s look and see what we do this year, and then next year we implement the dispersal actions if it can be proved that they work,” Cr Morse said.
“I’m very reluctant to spend all this money for absolutely no outcome.”
It was a point that several councillors could agree on, including Jess Jennings, who said he found it hard to justify the cost and was “happy to sit with level one and see what happens in time”.
When it came time to vote on the motion, Cr Morse had the support of councillors Rudge, Jennings, John Fry and Graeme Hanger, enough to pass it.