This year marks the first time council hasn't come to the rescue, declining a request to reduce the Mount Panorama pit complex hire fees by 50 per cent.

READ MORE: RYDA program goes without financial support from Bathurst council

Ian North, the most experienced councillor currently serving the city, has been part of the funding debates since the inception of RYDA.

With the program expected to be self sufficient within the first three to four years, councillors have grown increasingly reluctant to provide significant financial support more than a decade later.

Cr North said that, this year, "the discussions with RYDA were really good", but council wasn't able to support the request.

"It's been a number of things that have been said, in confidentiality, that they've put to council and we've discussed," he said.

"Like everyone else, council's been hit very hard with the COVID and the need to do things. People are saying, 'Fix your roads up', 'Fix your footpaths up', the mowing and all this sort of stuff. There's been a lot of things, there's a lot of people needing support, and groups like this, I think we've got to rethink how we look at it."

READ MORE: Driver awareness the top priority for RYDA as it returns to Mount

While Cr North sees the value in the program and wants it to continue, he believes a new funding arrangement needs to be put in place that secures the future of the event.

"It needs to be sorted out one way or the other so they don't have to keep coming back to council," he said.

"Whether council, as we've done with a few other groups, that we give a regular couple of grand every year to help them in their pursuits. Maybe it's got to be something like that that we've done with the Eisteddfod and those other groups you'd see in our [Section] 356 every year that's guaranteed funding.

"Potentially it might be something like that that we've got to look at."

He is hopeful council will come up with a plan, but acknowledged that money is tight.

"It's tough on both sides. It's something we want to see, young people supported as much as we can. What Rotary do across Australia and the world is wonderful," Cr North said.

"Groups are coming to us all the time asking us for support, but, like any level of government, you can only go so far for so long.

"... It comes to a point sooner or later, do we drop some of the services we do to balance out the books to be able to support other groups? It's a real balancing act and I think with the new council we just have to sit down and have a rethink."

RYDA was able to go ahead this year thanks to funds from the Rotary Club of Bathurst's corporate duck race and sponsorship from local businesses, including Town and Country Rural Supplies, Ray White Emms Mooney, and Bathurst Autobarn.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: