I would have thought that anyone who follows the news would have been aware that ever since the Orange state seat was lost by the Nats, and Dubbo came perilously close three years ago, pots of state and federal money have been chucked at both seats for hospitals, grandstands, etc.

Also, our councillors may not have noticed that the local state MP was returned with a bigger majority. This might indicate that voters were not overly concerned with what has been happening in Bathurst. I don't recall the hospital funding issue being raised before the state election. Plus the fact that the report Dr Jennings relies on has been around for over two years.

I would have thought that if you are going to run for parliament, you will find one or more causes to push for at least two years before the election date - not wait until three weeks before the polls.

One could be forgiven for believing that for the last few months, councillors have been busy with the minutiae of electric vehicle charging stations and new coffee shops, rather than the district hospital's shortcomings. Admittedly, the former are far less complicated than the latter.

By the way, are the electric car charging stations installed on council land? If so,

(a) Does the council have the authority to install a commercial enterprise on public park space?

(b) Do the owners of the power points pay a commercial rate of rent in line with, say, a service station that sells petrol and LPG?

Perhaps it won't be long before the site will become a fully-fledged service station. Who knows, it might also give councillors naughty ideas about the development for Victoria Park.