COUNCILLOR Alex Christian wants to see Bathurst and western NSW placed in a 'bubble' to protect residents from COVID-19.
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Bathurst has gone more than three months without any new cases of COVID-19 being diagnosed in the local government area, and the Western NSW Local Health District as a whole was in a similar position up until the diagnosis of a case in Orange late last week.
Cr Christian has been concerned about travel into the Bathurst region "for months", but his fears have grown with the increases in cases in Victoria and metropolitan NSW, to the point where he thinks it's time to cut off the western side of the state from Sydney.
"Seeing what happened in Orange on Friday, it just supported the fact that we need something done out here or otherwise it's only a matter of time before the Central West and western NSW needlessly gets affected," he said.
Any decision to restrict travel into certain areas would need to come from the NSW Government.
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Cr Christian intends to contact mayors and other council representatives from the area to find out their opinions and then, if there is support, lobby the premier to introduce travel restrictions.
He said people in western NSW should be able to travel to areas within "the bubble", but people from places like Sydney or other hotspots would not be welcome.
"The logistics would be for the state government to work out, but I think the whole point would be to give this area a bubble-like feel, so you can travel to Orange or Dubbo or Mudgee and they can travel to the other towns as well," Cr Christian said.
He acknowledges that travel restrictions would negatively impact local businesses, but feels it's better to take a small hit now rather than a big one later.
"What I am worried about is the potential total destruction if we get cases out here and go through another lockdown," he said.
"There's going to be businesses out there that probably won't like my idea, but they'll like it a hell of a lot more than a total shutdown option, I can guarantee that."