Orange City Council held its general meeting at Lucknow’s old school hall in Newman Street on Tuesday, inviting residents to speak. 

Vivienne Carman dubbed Lucknow the “poor cousin of Orange”.

“Lucknow is a part of Orange, a lot of rates are paid in this area and yet there isn’t even any mowing of the verges,” she said.

“The far bus stop is never mowed, never slashed, it’s snakey, there’s potholes, it’s hard to pull off the road when you’re meeting the bus.”

Mrs Carman said the contrast to Bathurst was stark. 

“When you drive through Bathurst, there is mowing, there is whipper-snippering of the verges, right out to the 100km/h zones along the highway – it looks great and then you come home and we look like a third-world country by comparison,” she said. 

Bruce Heinrich, a long-term member of the Lucknow community committee, said he rarely missed a meeting in 18 years. 

“We’ve had one-year plans, we’ve had two-year plans, five-year plans and 10-year plans and none of them were ever achieved,” he said. 

“We get the essential services but there’s been nothing to improve anything to make the place look attractive.”

The council developed a masterplan for the village in 2015, which included a village heart with green space, more speciality retail, highway upgrades with space for parking and footpaths, refurbishment of Wentworth Mine, new streets to unlock development land and higher residential density in the village core.

Councillor Tony Mileto, who chairs the committee, said positive discussions had occurred at the committee meeting two weeks ago. 

“Certainly if anybody wants to come along, we’ll listen to any concerns they may have,” he said.

Council spokesman Nick Redmond said after the meeting the different venue allowed councillors and staff to see the village firsthand.

“The roadside verges and areas around bus stops alongside the highway in the village of Lucknow are looked after by Orange City Council,” he said.

“Depending on seasonal conditions and the time of year, contractors mow the grass in these areas every few weeks – this includes the Wentworth Mine site and the areas around the site.”

He said there were some exceptions, including the area at the front of the mine where there was a steep verge between the highway and the mine, which could not be mowed using regular mowing equipment.

“Council staff will be inspecting the public grassy areas in the village in the coming week to see what’s due to be done,” he said. 

Residents also asked the council to carefully consider a request by the petrol station to operate 24 hours a day and were told the development application would come to the April meeting.