THE driving force behind a campaign to install a roundabout at Bathurst's worst intersection has reacted angrily to a plan to gag public voices at Bathurst Regional Council meetings.
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West Bathurst man Kent McNab, with the help of his wife Dianne, has fought a two-year campaign to have a roundabout installed at the intersection of Mitre, Suttor and Lambert streets after witnessing a serious accident at the crossing.
His campaign has seen detailed designs for the roundabout drawn up and around $1.7 million set aside in council funding and comes after more than two decades of inaction despite a number of engineers' reports that found a roundabout was the best solution.
A key to Mr McNab's lobbying was his presence at nearly every council for two years where he took the chance to speak from the public gallery about the need for a roundabout.
But, under a proposal currently before council, he would be silenced on raising the matter unless it was already included in that night's business papers.
Council's draft Code of Meeting Practice document, currently on exhibition, states the the purpose of the public forum would be "hearing oral submissions from members of the public on items of business to be considered at the meeting".
The draft also proposes limiting submissions from members of the public to just four minutes, down from the current five minutes.
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A fired-up Mr McNab used last week's public forum, while he still can, to attack the proposal as "anti-democratic".
"It should not be necessary to make it mandatory to only speak on the agenda items on the business papers of the ordinary meetings," he said.
"This would be a blatant denial of free speech by the Bathurst Regional Council and should not be implemented.
"Councillors, I implore you to take a stand against these anti-democratic changes."
Mr McNab said he would not have been able to speak about the roundabout at council meetings if the proposed changes were in place.
"It would not have been on the agenda if not raised by me," he said.
"The only other way would be to bombard councillors with phone calls and text messages one by one, day after day.
"This is not a satisfactory solution."