Cr Peter Batten successfully amends tree-objecting petition in Molong's Bank Street upgrade

In chambers on Tuesday, Cabonne Council addressed item 16 on the ordinary meeting agenda, titled 'Bank Street Molong Masterplan - petition received by council', in which Cr Peter Batten lead the way in proposing an amendment - to reject the petition due to error, fictitious nature and absence of supporting evidence.

"There are fundamental problems with council receiving this petition," Cr Batten said in chambers.

"If council accepts the petition, then, in my view, it's endorsing fiction over fact."

Cr Batten suggested that council seek a further report on the matter and to only accept the correspondence with addresses and signatories identified - elements that were missing on the submitted documentation - as it defies the requirements under council's Petition Policy.

He also recited the "many claims" - notably, from only some of Molong's residents - that council has fielded as ongoing since the project's inception; from parallel and nose-in parking requests, a raised median strip, cars said to be unable to manoeuvre between any prospective trees, including the street being "too narrow".

Amidst these items over the past two years, Cr Batten also brought new claims to light during the May 24 meeting.

"One of them, is that between the highway and Gidley Street, is that it's going to turn into a mall and the second one, is that drivers will crash into the trees when parking," he said.

"As people drive into our geriatric years, we are more likely to back into things like the current trees in Bank Street than drive into trees that are in front of us."

Cr Batten then referred to "the banner line of the petition", which states 'due to Bank Street [being] much narrower than most main streets we, the undersigned, are opposed to having trees down the middle, as we believe they would be a hazard to parking for many people and would block the street when delivery trucks are unloading'.

"Simply believing something doesn't mean it's fact," he said in response.

"As the petition does not contain addresses for signatories to the petition, it is [also] non-compliant with the Cabonne Council Petition Policy.

"In addition, there's no evidence of the petitioners having engaged anyone skilled in urban design to substantiate their claims."

When developing the concept plan for the 'Activation of Molong Town Centre' in 2020, Cr Batten said council undertook a multistage community consultation and engaged with a specialist in urban design.

He also said "the majority of people enthusiastically embraced the concept" and that the urban design specialist's recommendations were then submitted successfully by council to the NSW government for funding - securing one million dollars through the Building Better Regions program to revamp the main drag.

Proposing that council rejects the documents objecting to the planting of trees, Cr Batten said the factor of policy non-regulation remained.

"It is a responsibility of the author of any petition to comply with policies to ensure that the petition complies with the requirements of the level of government - be that local state or federal to which they're submitting a petition," Cr Batten said.

"In this case, very clearly, the author did not do that."

Cr Batten's proposal to amend the petition was supported by all Cabonne councillors, Mayor Kevin Beatty and general manager, Brad Byrnes - accepting only those who had actually signed and attached their address to the document.

"If we accept this petition and unsigned correspondence, it is setting a dangerous precedent for future councils," Cr Batten said.

A council workshop has been arranged for June 22 to address and give further details on the design approach for the Bank Street upgrades.

The session is said to include elements that have been raised in the petition.

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