RESIDENTS opposed to a go-kart track being built in McPhillamy Park at the top of Mount Panorama have won the formal support of the NSW Legislative Council.
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But Bathurst-based Nationals MLC Sam Farraway has rejected the claim of Upper House colleague David Shoebridge that the parliament had "rallied around a Greens motion calling for the protection of irreplaceable cultural heritage at Wahluu".
Mr Shoebridge put a motion to Wednesday's sitting of the Legislative Council asking it to acknowledge that Mount Panorama was a place of enormous importance to the Wiradyuri people and that plans to build a go-kart track would significantly damage the area.
The motion, which passed without discussion, also called on the Legislative Council to affirm the "desirability of finding an acceptable alternative site for the go-kart development".
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In a press release issued following the sitting, Mr Shoebridge said the motion passed without any dissenting voices "from across the political spectrum" and put Bathurst Regional Council "under increased pressure to halt its plans to build a go-kart track on Wahluu".
"The ball is now firmly in the council's court to follow the lead of the Parliament and find an alternative site for the project that protects Wahluu," he said.
But Mr Farraway accused Mr Shoebridge of being "selective" in his interpretation of the day's proceedings, saying the motion passing so quickly through the Upper House was a simple matter of procedure.
He said Mr Shoebridge had introduced the motion as private member's business and it had been disposed of without debate.
Mr Farraway said he was not even in the House when the matter came up and he did not feel bound by what the motion said.
"The motion doesn't mean anything. It's David Shoebridge's view and The Greens' view and they're perfectly entitled to that in a democracy," he said.
"But it won't change anything for Bathurst Regional Council nor for any movement calling for change in Bathurst."
Mr Farraway said his personal view was that he supported building a go-kart track in Bathurst but, as for where it should be built, that was a matter for Bathurst Regional Council.
The Legislative Council sitting came just hours before a rally in Bathurst's Kings Parade on Wednesday evening calling for council to find a new track site.
The rally was organised by the Friends of McPhillamy Park in response to confirmation this week that work on the go-kart track would start on March 8.
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