A petition with 200 signatures from Bensville residents has called for Gosford Council to cease work on the joining of the eastern ends of Wards, Yarram and Huntley Rds, Bensville.
Objections were based on the lack of community consultation, the impact on traffic volume and increased traffic speed, associated with a through road and the lack of any adequate or detailed justification for the sudden road proposal.
The petitioners also stated they were concerned about the increased risk of injury or death due to the change to traffic conditions as the lack of formal foot and cycle paths necessitate the use of the existing roads by pedestrians, particularly young children.
“No detailed cost benefit analysis has been provided in light of potentially significant construction costs,” a report to Council said.
According to Gosford Council’s department of construction and operations, the Bensville road works came out of a 2001 bushfire planning review report prepared as a result of the State Coroner’s findings into the cause and origins of fi res in the Gosford LGA in 1993 and 1994.
The proposed roadworks were intended to give residents greater access in the risk of a bushfire.
However, they were in the planning stage and will not be implemented until Gosford Council can fund a review of the recommendations from the Bush Fire Planning Review and Management Plan, which is expected to take several funding periods.
Agenda item P.15,
28 July 2015
Gosford Council ordinary
meeting