On Tuesday night, councillor Kevin Duffy said he was not happy the committee would not invite the Taxis Cabs of Orange Co-operative and bus operators to join the committee as non-voting members as he had requested.

“It’s a technical committee, but the issue is why the hell did they approve the lights at North Orange and we had to come back and make an adjustment?” he said. 

“They did have an oversight in that situation and there [have been] a number of other occasions … that aren’t commonsense decisions.”

Cr Duffy said traffic committees at Bathurst, Dubbo and Tamworth included bus, taxi and truck companies.

“Why can’t we have people on there who can help us make a more informed decision?” he said.

The committee noted most matters did not relate to public transport and having non-voting members previously had not worked well.

Councillor Russell Turner, who chairs the committee, said it was a statutory committee and voting membership was limited to the council, NSW Roads and Maritime Services, NSW Police and state and federal members of parliament. 

“We can always invite them along as a guest speaker and take their concerns into consideration,” he said.

However, Taxi Cabs of Orange co-operative chairman Darryl Curran said he had never been contacted to address the committee in his 16 years at the head of the organisation. 

“We don’t want to vote, we want an advisory role,” he said.

“They don’t drive around seeing what we see.”

Councillors also withheld support for decisions made by the traffic committee last month, deferring them pending more information.

Last month, Cr Duffy moved for any committee decision requiring an outlay of funds to come to councillors with a report.

Previously, minutes contained resolutions only, which were forwarded to councillors and usually endorsed without discussion. 

The motion was supported by the rest of the council but on Tuesday, Cr Duffy again asked for reports – staff said they were working towards it

“There’s not full discussion because we’re not given the relevant information,” he said.