Orange City Council has been left holding the baby in a sense after member for Orange Andrew Gee insisted a parking study could only proceed once the Huntley Road entrance was opened.

Furthermore, the entrance can only be opened once upgrades to the internal road network are completed.

Fortunately, there is some work on the way, with the internal road network between Huntley Road and the Mission Australia aged care facility to start in just over a week’s time.

But the other half of the project has remained in the balance for several months, with delays in gaining approval from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage.

Previous experience with state government departments means this comes as little surprise - after all, the former Orange Base Hospital site purchase negotiations took more than a year longer than anticipated and even longer for the council to gain permission to occupy the site. 

But there’s no reason why the state of the roads should dictate how much parking is provided at the Bloomfield campus.

If people are parking illegally, it means that all legal parking spaces within a reasonable walking distance, at the front and back of the main hospital, are occupied. 

If the choice is between a sealed bitumen space and a grassed kerb, most would choose the first option.

One has to question whether the road network upgrades have been used as a stalling tactic, particularly when suggestions for interim parking have been knocked back. 

Easy access to and around the hospital makes no difference if there’s nowhere to stop once a visitor has arrived and in the Sharpe family’s case, where some could not arrive in time to say goodbye to their loved one, this reality has had tragic consequences.