FINANCIAL constraints have held up progress on a request that resident Peter Dowling has been making of Bathurst Regional Council for years.
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More than 20 years ago, he first put the idea to council for the iconic sign on Mount Panorama to have the word 'Bathurst' placed beneath it.
In more recent times, he has raised the idea with mayors Paul Toole, Monica Morse, Greg Westman, Gary Rush and Graeme Hanger.
Mr Dowling said that Mr Rush was the only one to formally reply to him about the idea, writing a letter thanking him for the suggestion but saying it wasn't possible to do at the time.
The city's name has appeared at multiple race events in recent years, but the letters were never permanent and soon faded.
"The attempts to put the word 'Bathurst' on it look good at the time, but three weeks later it looks woeful," Mr Dowling said.
Plans for adding 'Bathurst' to the hill permanently have been on the cards since council's 2017-18 financial year budget was released, in which there was a $275,000 allocation.
At the May ordinary meeting of council, Mr Dowling was told that the reason the plans had not progressed came down to money.
Director of Engineering Services, Darren Sturgiss, said that there were "demands on the budget" from other projects, such as the boardwalk around the top of Mount Panorama, which were delaying the sign.
"There has been work done with regards to the planning and installation of a permanent 'Bathurst' sign," he said.
"The approval process for that has been considerable but is complete, and it's a matter of scheduling the works."
Mr Dowling plans to keep an eye on the progress of the signage project, hopeful that his years of pushing for it will pay off.
He said it would be an good addition given the global coverage the Mount gets.
"[Mount Panorama] is a gift and all that needs to be done is get that [word] up there," Mr Dowling said.
