To that end, the Central Western Daily has a long and proud history of reporting on Orange City Council’s plans and promises, its successes and shortcomings.

In recent years there have been few issues in the realm of local government more contentious than the Northern Distributor Road.

Every time we publish a story on the city’s controversial bypass we are inundated with comments on our website.

Very few of these comments paint council in a flattering light.

The coverage of Councillor Glenn Taylor’s suggestion the road be closed for a week in an attempt to attract state government funding was no exception.

Here’s a couple of examples of comments on those stories from the last 24 hours ...

“Council is unable to put together a compelling argument so their go-to option is to screw over the residents of Orange for a week? How on earth did these people get voted in?”

“It would be like any one of us building a car out of spare parts in out (sic) backyard and then asking a dealer to supply a manufacturers' warranty.”

As always, we welcome our readers’ comments and, as long as they contain nothing of an offensive and slanderous nature, we will happily publish them.

But these – and the bulk of the comments we see about council and the distributor – seem like the words of disgruntled people living on the margins of power, some of whom appear to have personal as well as political reasons for their attacks on councillors and council staff.

What they are not are the rhetoric of well-meaning citizens constructively seeking solutions to the city’s issues.

They are all about assigning blame – warranted or otherwise – for past actions.

There’s certainly a place for that: accountability is one of the cornerstones of responsible government.

But too often on these stories we are seeing baseless attacks on public servants and council staff who are simply trying to bring one of the region’s major roads up to the standard the city’s ratepayers demand.

Say what you will about about Cr Taylor’s plan: it’s both an idea and focused on the future.

Too many of the comments anonymously posted on the CWD’s website are neither.