IT will be a tale of two parks when Bathurst Regional Council meets for its monthly meeting on Wednesday night.
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Before councillors even enter the chamber they can expect to be confronted by placard-waving protesters keen to make their voices heard over plans to build a $4.5 million go-kart track in McPhillamy Park at the top of Mount Panorama.
The reasons for their objections are not new and will come as no surprise to the councillors: concerns over the track being built on a public park; concerns over the misuse of traditional Aboriginal land; concerns over the loss of amenity in the area; concerns over the funding of the project, etc.
But given the ongoing COVID restrictions at council meetings that have locked out members of the public since last March, protesters have little choice but to rally outside the meeting if they wish to be heard - and confirmation that March 8 will mark the start of work on the go-kart track has only added some urgency to their cause.
Once inside the chamber, however, councillors will have the future of a different Bathurst park on their minds.
The seeming never-ending saga of the Centennial Park upgrade has taken another twist with plans for the installation of a $500,000 irrigation system shelved following revelations such a system would use enough water each week in the warmer months to fill an Olympic size swimming pool.
Bathurst's great water scare last year as we watched Ben Chifley Dam fall to record lows has forced a rethink of how we use that valuable resource and few would accept that committing such a quantity of water to a single park would be a responsible allocation.
Instead, council staff and the Friends of Centennial Park have worked together and settled on a new (third) proposal that will see new paths put in through the park, new lighting and some new trees planted.
The contrast of that collaborative approach to the ongoing conflict we've seen surrounding the future use of McPhillamy Park could hardly be more stark.
And council's willingness to borrow the money needed to develop the go-kart track when it became clear that state and federal grants would not be immediately forthcoming while the same amount of money cannot be found in council's coffers to carry out the full upgrade of Centennial Park will also raise a few eyebrows.
Just another interesting night at Bathurst Regional Council. Grab the popcorn and follow the livestream.
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