On Thursday morning, an elderly gentleman wheezed into our office. He had just seen the construction workers putting up a road works sign and jogged from Otho Street to our offices, penning a letter on the way. “Please, put it in tomorrow’s issue,” he implored. But it was just one of many letters. Here are just two:
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IN FAVOUR
While there has been a lot of conjecture over the removal of trees and changes to parking along with the installation of median strips it appears that there is need for change of some sort and that every one is not going to be completely satisfied with the outcome. Over the last twenty years I have travelled rural NSW extensively and rest assured the Inverell is one off the best maintained towns of its size that I have observed.
The one thing that I found Inverell has in common with most of its counterparts is the absolute inability of pedestrians to to be able to avoid the experience of consuming second hand cigarette smoke. The adverse health effects of passive smoking are well documented and have lead to smoking bans in pretty much all enclosed public spaces and a great deal of unenclosed spaces. Unfortunately, the footpaths in the CBD are not one of these spaces. Legislation provides for a ban within four metres of public access points to buildings such as shops but this seems to be steadfastly ignored.
My only defense at the moment is to carry an asthma puffer. It would seem to me that the Town Centre Renewal project might be a unique opportunity for Council to implement a total ban on smoking.
AGAINST
I am writing to express my grave concern regarding the closure of the Gwydir Highway (Otho St) in Inverell. Inverell Shire Council notified the local affected businesses on January 16, of the closure to commence January 29, a notification period of 13 days rather than the requisite 28 days, with right of appeal (as determined by the Road Act of 1993). The main areas of concern are as follows:
- Has the applicable Part 5 assessment (Environmental Planning and Assessment Act) been undertaken prior to the commencement of the work, and;
- Does the Council have the delegated authority to close a State Highway?
I requested a local councillor to seek answers to these issues, but to date, no answer has been forthcoming. As stands, it would appear that a meeting of the Local Traffic Committee has not taken place. Request for consent to close the highway has not been sought from the RMS, which is required by the Road Act of 1993. Unfortunately, there is a definite time restriction in this issue. If proper processes have not been followed, then the work scheduled to commence on Monday must be delayed.
