The ongoing saga of providing a toilet block in Robertson Park has taken another turn with a rescission motion planned for Tuesday night's Orange City Council meeting.
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Cr Glenn Taylor said a report in the meeting agenda indicated the state government would request council return about $200,000 allocated for the park toilet complex if it could not find a suitable use for the money.
Plans for the toilet block were knocked back by council in December after they were initially approved.
Now Cr Glenn Taylor said he, with the backing of councillors Jeff Whitton and Jason Hamling, would put up a rescission motion on Tuesday.
He said if that succeeded the Robertson Park toilets would be back up for debate at a meeting later in May.
Council is considered a joke over this. To give $200,000 back is not an option as far as I am concerned.
- Cr Glenn Taylor
Cr Taylor said the money needed to be spent on toilet facilities in Orange and Robertson Park was the area most needing the facilities.
He said council should not give the money back to the government because it could not agree on where to spend it.
"This is unbelievable. It would be totally unprecedented," he said.
Cr Taylor said the situation needed to be resolved.
"It is crunch time. If we have to submit a new DA it will take months," he said.
"We will be putting the proposal back as it was, to be reconsidered by council.
"Council is considered a joke over this. To give $200,000 back is not an option as far as I am concerned."
He said he had asked for a full report into the situation. He said he was also concerned about the legality of the refusal by council to approve the toilet.
In December the council voted seven councillors to five to rescind a development application approving the location of the toilets on the eastern side of Robertson Park.
The rescission followed concerns from nearby businesses about the toilets exacerbating anti-social behaviour in the park.
Council also knocked back a further motion to return to another approved DA, for toilets co-located at the CWA Hall, and restart talks with the CWA.
The CWA had ruled out pursuing the matter further.
After the December decision Cr Whitton argued the council was not making enough decisions and was only knocking ideas back.
"The feedback I'm getting is we're going sideways, we're not making decisions, and when we do, it's to stop something," he said.
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