THE developer behind a planned childcare centre in Eglinton will be asked to address traffic, noise and parking concerns before Bathurst Regional Council makes its final decision.
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Hanna’s Childcare Developments has lodged a development application to knock down the existing home, garage and outbuilding at 23 Park Street – next door to the Eglinton Store.
In its place will be built a new single storey childcare centre along with associated infrastructure.
But council has deferred a decision on the DA after a number of neighbouring residents raised their concerns at last week’s monthly meeting.
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Mal Pollard, who lives on Park Street opposite the development site, said he was not against the idea of more childcare in the suburb but said the developers had failed to adequately address parking issues.
The DA includes six on-site parking spots but with the childcare centre to have seven full-time staff, Mr Pollard said there would be increased pressure on on-street parking during drop-off and pick-up times.
“Because it’s a residential area I would feel they would need to provide parking for their staff,” he said.
“And without a dedicated pick-up and drop-off point, there really needs to be additional parking for their clients as well.”
Another Park Street resident, Tim Williams, backed Mr Pollard’s concerns and said the safety of children living in the area also needed to be taken into consideration.
“There are a lot of children on scooters, bicycles and so on (using Park Street),” he said.
“Most of them are unattended by parents and … they need to cross the road onto the footpath on the tennis court side of Park Street to get down to school.
“There is also an issue that parking in Alexander Street is not readily available for school drop-offs so a lot of the drop-offs ... are done by cars parking in Park Street.”
Councillors deferred the DA “for further discussion with the proponent on traffic, parking and noise issues”.
