Orange won't follow Bathurst's lead in trying to put travel restrictions in place

Bathurst mayor Bobby Burke said council would explore what it could do after a Sydney football team's arrival in the city sparked furore last weekend, but his counterpart in Orange has hosed down suggestions the city would do the same.

Cr Bourke said one thing council could potentially do is "put some restrictions on people coming from hotspots", saying "I think it is something we've seriously got to look at".

"I keep having a look at what's going on in Sydney and these hotspots. It should be those people staying put where they are, but if they are getting through the cracks, then we need to shut those cracks up and tell them 'No, you can't come here'," Cr Bourke said.

Orange mayor Reg Kidd said he'd been following the debate in Bathurst and while he acknowledged the anxiety in the community around events such as the Fire Festival held at the start of the month, he said there would be issues trying to keep travellers out.

"People will say they want to keep people out, but then they want to let their aunt from Sydney in because 'oh I know she's safe'," he said.

While Cr Kidd said the city "obviously" didn't want people travelling from hotspots across the state, he added Orange had nearly a dozen major entrances which council would have to monitor in order for any restrictions to be worthwhile.

"If everyone does the right thing we don't have anything to worry about, with social distancing and making sure we follow the rules," he said.

"There are no cases at Condobolin, and a lot of people out there come to Orange to come to the hospital or shopping, they haven't had any cases out here in a long time. How do you tell them to turn back around?

"We saw in lockdowns the impact on people in increased anxiety and mental health issues and suicides, what we're doing in Orange and the way we are doing it is good."

He said he had no qualms about people wearing masks in Orange and encouraged people to do so if they felt they needed to.

Member for Orange Phil Donato said while the city still had to remain "vigilant", cutting people off from travelling wasn't an option he'd like to see enacted.

"As a state we're still doing quite well, making sure we're quarantining people from Victoria," he said.

"You look at the cases and deaths down there and reminded of why we need to be vigilant.

"Most people are complying with health orders and businesses are doing really well to adapt. I hear from both types of people, people who are in the high-risk category who are a bit concerned and business owners who need the business."

He said he didn't want to see more restrictions placed on people unless the situation in NSW worsened significantly.

While Bathurst MP Paul Toole had given Bathurst Regional Council advice the city could try to limit visitor numbers, he didn't think it was the right move to make.

While Mr Toole doesn't believe it's necessary at this time to cut off regional NSW from Sydney, as NSW is seeing low case numbers, he said it was important to remember that it was still a very serious situation.

"The dangers of COVID-19 are real; people should not become complacent. There are rules that are in place and if we all do the right thing then we won't have to shut the state down," he said.

With regards to sport, he said the NSW Government has strict guidelines in place around community sport, but groups could introduce more measures if they wanted to.

These measures include cancelling competitions, not travelling to Sydney and not allowing teams from hotspots to play locally.