New plan for Centennial Park after irrigation system deemed 'excessive'

And now plans to redevelop the park on the edge of the Bathurst CBD will come back before council as stakeholders investigate better ways to spend money already committed to the project.

Council voted in February 2019 to adopt a $4.5 million landscape design to redevelop the park but the plans were immediately shelved with no funding available.

Instead, the Friends of Centennial Park lobby group secured a commitment from council to include $250,000 in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 budgets to fund a $500,000 irrigation system throughout the park as a first stage in the ambitious project.

But those plans were also shelved as council reconsidered its water use as Ben Chifley Dam fell to record lows in late 2019 and early 2020 and now a report to councillors recommends taking a different approach again.

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The report by engineering services director Darren Sturgiss says fully irrigating Centennial Park would require "excessive" amounts of water and "not portray water wise initiatives to the community" and a meeting with the FoCP in January found them to be sympathetic to council's plight.

As a result, council staff and the FoCP have agreed on a new list of priorities - including new paths, new plantings and upgraded lighting - to allow work to finally begin on the neglected park.

"It is believed that reallocating the $500,000 that is currently set aside for Centennial Park Irrigation to enable the path upgrade, avenue tree planting with irrigation and main path lighting works would be an acceptable outcome in respect to achieving best practice irrigation approach for Centennial Park and at the same time enabling the commencement of visible park embellishment works that the Friends Of Centennial Park have been wishing for some time," Mr Sturgiss states in his report.

"It is therefore recommended that council reallocate its current funding for irrigation at Centennial Park towards a staged development of the adopted Master Plan Design ..."

Mr Sturgiss said the proposed changes, if approved by councillors at Wednesday night's meeting, would require a modification of the original plans by a design consultant at an estimated cost of $6000.

"However, it is believed that a staged approach for these elements can be achieved without having to undertake major re-work in the future," he said.