TWO Wattle Flat community bodies have been asked to prepare a joint plan of management for the village's racecourse reserve and they have until the end of the year to do so.
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Councillors at Bathurst Regional Council's meeting on Wednesday night debated whether to have the two groups - the Wattle Flat Progress Association and Wattle Flat Golf Club - prepare separate plans of management before voting for the joint plan option.
Councillor Ian North suggested the separate plans.
"To me, both of them [the groups] have got extremely good cases," he said.
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He suggested the separate plans should include how each group would work with the other and then council "staff in January can collate all that information for us as councillors and then in February we can make a decision".
"It's a lovely little community, it does a wonderful job, it has wonderful facilities, and I don't want to see something like this potentially split the community," he said. "I think both of them have to show us how they can run it before we can move forward."
General manager David Sherley's report to the meeting said council had been approached by both the Wattle Flat groups over the future management of the racecourse reserve on Limekilns Road.
"At this time, there is no council resolution which appoints a management committee for the reserve," his report said.
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Representatives of each of the two Wattle Flat groups addressed councillors during public question time and councillor Monica Morse said she was "heartened" by what was said.
"I think it's really good that the community groups in villages like Wattle Flat work together and I really was heartened by both the speakers tonight saying how they wanted to work for the benefit of Wattle Flat," she said.
Councillors voted to have a joint plan of management prepared by the two groups by the end of December and for council to fund an independent facilitator to work with the community.
Mr Sherley's report said council has traditionally dealt with the Bronze Thong Committee with respect to the racecourse reserve, but the committee is not an incorporated group.