ACCESSIBILITY appears to be one of the key issues voters will have on their minds when they take to the polls for the NSW election.
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A candidate forum was held on Wednesday night for people in the electorate to attend, giving them an opportunity to hear from the candidates and put their questions to them.
Four of Bathurst's six candidates, Beau Riley (Labor), Brenden May (Shooters, Fishers and Farmers), David Harvey (The Greens) and Tim Hansen (Keep Sydney Open), spoke at the event.
Multiple disability advocates from Bathurst asked questions regarding important access issues.
The first was about the provision of footpaths in new subdivisions and whether or not candidates would put pressure on local government to provide them.
Mr Hansen said he would support laws that made it a requirement for all new subdivisions to have footpaths.
"I think that all cities should be livable for all people, so the fact that there's no footpaths in new subdivisions seems pretty stupid to me," he said.
Mr Riley said he would need to see data and any current legislation before he could comment, but said if there was a safety issue then it needed to be reviewed.
A similar answer was given by Mr May, who also admitted to not having enough knowledge about existing requirements.
"But should I be fortunate enough to become the member, then obviously this is something that needs to be looked into," he said.
Mr Harvey said that, when he ran as a candidate for Bathurst Regional Council, footpaths were part of his platform and they were still a concern to him now.
"New subdivisions should have footpaths," he said.
The candidates were also asked about changing legislation regarding pedestrian crossings, providing more inclusive education in schools for children with disability and securing funding for disability advocacy.
The latter led to an outpouring of support from the candidates.
"Hearing these kinds of things makes me really quite cranky, because I don't understand why we have a state government that keeps picking on the most vulnerable people in our society," Mr Hansen said. "It doesn't make sense to me."
Mr Riley said he couldn't make any guarantees, but said the issue was "on the radar" for his party.
"It's crazy the amount of funding that is getting ripped from essential services," he said.
Mr Harvey said that if the Greens got the balance of power with the Labor Party, he would ask the relevant members of parliament to canvas for funding.
