Northern NSW Inland Port proposal exhibition date extended

Yarrie Lake Road residents succeeded in getting Narrabri Shire Council to extend its public exhibition of the Northern NSW Inland Port planning proposal.

Speaking at an extraordinary meeting of council, residents continued to voice concerns about vehicle access to the Inland Port.

Robert Browning said property holders were not against the hub, they were just asking for Yarrie Lake Road not to be used as the entrance and exit.

He, and other residents, are hoping to engage an engineer to look at the proposal with the time extension that was granted.

Previously, Mr Browning told The Courier there are proposed entrance and exits to the Inland Port about 1.5 km apart on Yarrie Lake Road.

“This would put a high volume of heavy traffic past the residences,” he said.

“We think that would be ridiculous. The safety concerns and loss of amenity and devaluation of our residential land worry us. The volume of traffic will bring issues.

“We fail to understand why the entrance and exit won’t be off Culgoora Road when so much money has been spent. And Yarrie Lake Road is not road train rated.

Mr Browning was one of several residents who formed a delegation that met council representatives before Christmas to argue their case.

Fellow Yarrie Lake Road resident Jenny Gale also addressed the meeting and voiced concerns about the proposal. She also questioned council’s transparency with residents on the proposal.

Mayor Ron Campbell told the special meeting council was seeking nothing more at this stage than rezoning the land from rural to industrial.

“There will be opportunity into the future to make more submissions,” Cr Campbell said.

“This is purely and simply to change from agricultural to industrial. It doesn’t nominate any access points.”

With the vote split to grant an additional two weeks for the public exhibition, Cr Campbell used his casting vote in favour of extending the timeline.

“I will vote for the recommendation … in the interest of transparency,” he said. “In the interest of encouraging members of the community to be assured that council is considering their thoughts … I will go with the changing of the recommendation.”

The planning proposal will now be on public exhibition until midnight on Sunday, February 14.