CABONNE councillors have voted to visit the Macquarie Pipeline route, a move Orange City Council is yet to consider.
CABONNE councillors have voted to visit the Macquarie Pipeline route, a move Orange City Council is yet to consider.
Mayor Ian Gosper said council should have made the decision long ago.
“We owe it to residents to go out there and have a look,” he said.
“It should have been done before and we owe it to ourselves to see where it goes.”
Cr Gosper wouldn’t say whether he thought Orange City Council should follow suit.
Previously, only two Cabonne Council members had visited the site, former mayor Bob Dowling and deputy mayor Lachie MacSmith.
Orange councillors Reg Kidd, Neil Jones and Russell Turner are the only Orange councillors to visit the proposed route.
Cr Gosper said he wasn’t against the pipeline but would like to see councils look at a regional solution.
“I don’t think there should be a quick fix,” he said,
“We need to have a good look at it in a regional sense.”
Yeoval and Cumnock do not have potable water. Residents use tanks for drinking water.
Cr Gosper said he was aware Orange City Council had looked at alternative solutions to water security, but did not believe they had considered every option to the fullest.
Cr Lachie MacSmith moved the motion to send a bus of Cabonne councillors to the route.
“We’ve got to be involved with this,” he said.
“There are a lot of unhappy residents and we should go down there as good PR [public relations].”
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CABONNE Council has decided not to enter into an agreement with Orange City Council over the Macquarie Pipeline until the state government approves the project.
Council decided to withhold giving Orange City Council conditions in which they could proceed with the project.
The conditions concerned provisions for traffic, restoration of road infrastructure, implementation of appropriate sedimentation and vegetation.
Deputy mayor Lachie MacSmith said he was concerned there were unanswered questions in the environmental assessment (EA).
“The EA is 1500 pages long and there are too many unknowns,” he said.
Cr MacSmith said some residents along the proposed route had not signed access agreements.
Without signatures it would be difficult for Orange City Council to enter properties.
“Some are not happy about it and I think it is too early to support it,” Cr MacSmith said.
Orange City Council spokesman Nick Redmond said the decision would not have an impact on the project.
“We’ve been in talks with Cabonne ... about these issues,” he said.
“If that’s their decision, if they want to wait for the state government, that’s fine.”
The Macquarie Pipeline would be 37 kilometres long, with 31km running through Cabonne.