Taco Bell was on the agenda for council last week, as it discussed a report detailing a request from a relative of the land owner to reduce a financial contribution towards water and sewer headworks.

READ MORE: Council asked to reduce charges for Bathurst Taco Bell project

The charges are a condition of consent for the development to proceed.

Council ultimately resolved to maintain the requirement for charges, but not before some councillors advocated for the development to get a helping hand.

Councillor Bobby Bourke called for "a bit of leeway".

"From day one, Taco Bell has been very controversial through council; there was a lot of restrictions put on them and their DA and it's continuing on and on," he said.

"I feel that somewhere along the line it is a local business and through COVID-19 we've tried to attract more business. This hasn't even got off the ground."

The DA for Taco Bell was approved in June 2020 and it has been back to council more than once since then as the developer sought to modify some of the conditions of consent.

In correspondence with council, the relative of the landowner said the costs for the development were starting to blow out, citing a figure of $1.4 million just to prepare the site before construction could start.

Cr Alex Christian joined Cr Bourke in the call to make it easier for the development to finally get under way.

"We're in extraordinary times, and everybody uses COVID-19 as an excuse to support whatever angle they want, whether it's doing something or not doing something ... and I think we can do that here. I think we need to give a discount," Cr Christian said.

"We have an area there that needs something done with it. We have a franchise that's happy to come here and create something like 50 or 70 jobs. We've just come out of a recession ... so I think council has an obligation to look at those things for jobs for our young people and employment for really anybody and we have to put our local economy first.

"And I think we really should do everything we can here, because I'm really disheartened to see Tamworth and Orange, they're moving ahead with Taco Bell, they've got these things established and up and running, and I feel at Bathurst we're still here talking about it 18 months later or something."

Cr Jacqui Rudge, though, argued that community organisations, such as Glenray Industries, were not having their fees reduced by council.

READ MORE: Glenray Industries' to pay developer contributions for group homes

Last week's discussion of the Taco Bell DA also touched on the difference in charges between the three developments in Bathurst ($92,000), Orange ($13,000) and Tamworth ($37,000).

Council staff defended the amount, saying the methodology was consistent with that of similar developments.

General manager David Sherley advised against setting a precedent: "You have to be very careful if you go outside [council's strategic plans] because you may as well then wipe all of our strategic plans."

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