'A disaster waiting to happen': Cr Jeff Whitton asks for action on Orange's Bargwanna Road

Bargwanna Road has become Orange's latest track for reckless driving according to Cr Jeff Whitton who brought the problem up at Tuesday night's Orange City Council meeting after being contacted by residents in the area.

"It's a bit of a racetrack, they come off Bloomfield Road, go down Bargwanna Road onto to [Buttle Road] and back out to Forest Road and they go round and round and round," Cr Whitton said.

"They hit some very high speeds in that lane, they tear it up pretty badly and destroy fences ... a few months ago there was a serious accident there."

Cr Whitton, who also lives in the area, asked council's traffic and crime prevention sub committees to investigate ways to deter the reckless driving and another anti-social behaviour along the approximately two kilometres of gravel road.

"Because there is a number of social issues in that area as well," he said.

"They really tear this road up, council are constantly out here fixing it," Cr Whitton said adding residents believed the majority of cars used where stolen and being used for joyriding.

"That's our theory because you wouldn't do it to your own car," he said.

"There's a gentleman, they burned a car in front of his driveway, he had to go and remove it. It's been an issue over the years but not as regular, it's a regular occurrence now. Most evenings, generally of a night-time and weekends.

"The only time it doesn't happen is when they have events like the running club or when there's a big event at Gosling Reservoir."

Cr Whitton said residents have called the police.

"But the police can't be everywhere.

"They reason I've raised it at council is because they've asked me, is there anything that council can do to put things in place to deter them.

"Residents have said they're happy to put their own cameras up because they have them on the farm but first they'd like to know they're not taking the law into their own hands, it would be just to pass on to the relevant parties, council or police, if something did happen.

"Because they are forever fixing their fences."

Cr Whitton told Tuesday night's meeting Bargwanna Road was the scene of a serious accident two months ago when a motorcyclist collided with a car head on.

"It's a disaster waiting to happen," he said.

Bargwanna Road was the first of two matters raised for the traffic committee at Tuesday night's meeting with Cr Steve Peterson raising motorists' concerns about the pedestrian crossing on Byng Street, linking the council chambers to Robertson Park.

It was installed earlier this year as part of the FutureCity central business district upgrade.

"The concern is that if a big car parks next to the pedestrian crossing then it blocks the vision of any oncoming cars, people using that crossing, until they're actually on the road," Cr Peterson told the meeting.

"The suggestion was that the car park immediately next to it be blocked off."

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